IGHTING 

FRANCE 


<m> 


S TEPHANE 

LAUZANNE 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 


BY 

STEPHANE  LAUZANNE 

UKUTEVANT  XK  THE  FRENCH  ABMT,   CHEVALIEB  OF  THE  LEOIOH  OF  HOJfOB 
EDITOR  IN  CHIEF  OF  THE  "mATIN," 
OF  THE  FRENCH  MISSION  TO  THE  UNITED  STATES 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION  BY 

JAMES  M.  BECK,  LL.D. 

IiAVK  A8BI8TAHT  ATTORHET-OENERAL  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES 


TRANSLATED  BY 
JOHN  L.  B.  WILLIAMS.  A.M. 

bomkthis  FHiLowvpF  ^uHOBToa  uyix^i^oi'" 


•  .    •  I* 


D.  APPLETON  AND  COMPANY 

NEW  YORK  LONDON 

1918 


OaprniQHT  1»18.  a? 
D.  APPLETUIV  AND  COMPANY 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


d 


TO 

MY  CHIEFS 

MY  COMRADES 

MY  MEN 

WHO  ARE  FIGHTING  FOR  THE  GREAT  CAUBB 
OF  LIBERTY  AND  CIVILIZATION 

THIS  BOOK  IS  DEDICATED 


389417 


FOREWORD 

To  be  Editor-in-Chief  of  one  of  the  greatest 
newspapers  in  the  world  at  twenty-seven  years  of 
age  is  a  distinction,  which  has  been  enjoyed  by 
few  other  men,  if  any,  in  the  whole  history  of 
journalism.  There  may  have  been  exceptional 
instances,  where  young  men  by  virtue  of  proprie- 
tary and  inherited  rights,  have  nominally,  or  even 
actually,  succeeded  to  the  editorial  control  of  a 
great  metropolitan  newspaper.  But  in  the  case 
of  M.  St^phane  Lauzanne,  his  assumption  of  duty 
in  1901  as  Editor-in-Chief  of  the  Paris  Matm 
was  wholly  the  result  of  exceptional  achievement 
in  journalism.  Merit  and  ability,  and  not  merely 
friendly  influences,  gave  him  this  position  of 
unique  power,  for  the  Matin  has  a  circulation 
in  France  of  nearly  two  million  copies  a  day,  and 
its  Editor-in-Chief  thereby  exerts  a  power  which 
it  would  be  difficult  to  over-estimate. 

vii 


FOREWORD 

M.  Lauzanne  was  bom  in  1874?  and  is  a  gradu- 
ate of  the  Faculty  of  Law  of  Paris.  Believing 
that  journalism  opened  to  him  a  wider  avenue  of 
usefulness  than  the  legal  profession,  he  preferred 
— as  the  event  showed  most  wisely — to  follow  a 
journalistic  career.  In  this  choice  he  may  have 
been  guided  by  the  fact  that  he  was  the  nephew 
of  the  most  famous  foreign  correspondent  in  the 
history  of  journalism.  I  refer  to  M.  de  Blowitz, 
who  was  for  many  years  the  Paris  correspondent 
of  the  London  Times,  and  as  such  a  very  notable 
representative  of  the  Fourth  Estate.  No  one  ever 
more  fully  illustrated  the  truth  of  the  words 
which  Thackeray,  in  Pendennis,  puts  into  the 
mouth  of  his  George  Warrington,  when  he  and 
Arthur  Pendennis  stand  in  Fleet  Street  and  hear 
the  rumble  of  the  engines  in  the  press-room.  He 
likened  the  foreign  correspondents  of  these  news- 
papers to  the  ambassadors  of  a  great  State ;  and 
no  one  more  fully  justifies  the  analogy  than  M. 
de  Blowitz,  for  it  is  profitable  to  recall  that  when 
in  1875  the  military  party  of  Germany  secretly 
planned  to  strike  down  France,  when  the  stricken 
viii 


FOREWORD 

gladiator  was  slowly  but  courageously  struggling 
to  its  feet,  it  was  de  Blowitz,  who  in  an  article  in 
the  London  Times  let  the  light  of  day  into  the 
brutal  and  iniquitous  scheme,  and  by  mere  pub- 
licity defeated  for  the  time  being  this  conspiracy 
against  the  honor  of  France  and  the  peace  of 
the  world.  Unfortunately  the  coup  of  the  Prus- 
sian military  clique  was  only  postponed.  Our 
generation  was  destined  to  sustain  the  unprec- 
edented horrors  of  a  base  attempt  to  destroy 
France,  that  very  glorious  asset  of  all  civiliza- 
tion. 

De  Blowitz  took  great  interest  in  his  brilliant 
nephew  and  at  his  suggestion  Lauzanne  became  the 
London  correspondent  of  the  Matm  in  1898,  when 
he  was  only  twenty-four  years  of  age.  This 
brought  him  into  direct  communication  with  the 
London  Times  which  then  as  now  exchanged  cable 
news  with  the  Matin,  and  it  was  the  duty  of  the 
young  journalist  to  take  the  cable  news  of  the 
"Thunderer"  and  transmit  such  portions  as 
would  particularly  interest  France  to  the  Matin, 
with   such   special   comment   as   suggested   itself. 

ix 


FOREWORD 

How  well  he  did  this  work,  requiring  as  it  did  the 
most  accurate  judgment  and  the  nicest  discrimi- 
nation, was  shown  when  he  was  made  Editor-in- 
Chief  of  the  Matm  in  1901. 

His  tenure  of  office  was  destined  to  be  short 
for,  when  the  world  war  broke  out,  M.  Lauzanne, 
as  a  First  Lieutenant  of  the  French  Army,  joined 
the  colors  in  the  first  days  of  mobilization  and 
surrendered  the  pen  for  the  sword.  His  career 
as  editor  had  been  long  enough,  however,  for  him 
to  impress  upon  the  minds  of  the  French  public 
the  imminency  of  the  Prussian  Peril.  As  to  this 
he  had  no  illusions  and  his  powerful  editorials 
had  done  much  to  combat  the  spirit  of  pacificism, 
which  at  that  time  was  weakening  the  prepara- 
tions of  France  for  the  inevitable  conflict. 

The  obligation  of  universal  service  required  him 
to  exchange  his  position  of  great  power  and 
usefulness  for  a  lesser  position,  but  this  spirit 
of  common  service  in  the  ranks  means  much  for 
France  or  for  any  nation.  The  democracy  of 
the  French  Army  could  not  be  questioned,  when 
the  powerful  Editor  of  the  Matm  became  merely 


FOREWORD 

a  lieutenant  in  the  Territorial  Infantry.  As  such, 
he  served  in  the  battle  of  the  Mame  and  later  be- 
fore Verdun,  and  thus  could  say  of  the  two  most 
heroic  chapters  in  French  history,  as  ^neas  said 
of  the  Siege  of  Troy,  "Much  of  which  I  saw,  and 
part  of  which  I  was." 

Having  fulfilled  the  obligation  of  universal 
service  in  the  ranks,  it  is  not  strange  that  in  1916 
he  was  recalled  to  serve  the  French  Ministry  of 
Foreign  Affairs.  For  a  time  he  rendered  great 
service  in  Switzerland,  where  from  the  beginning 
of  the  war  an  acute  but  ever-lessening  controversy 
has  raged  between  the  pro-German  and  the  pro- 
Ally  interests. 

He  was  then  chosen  for  a  much  more  important 
mission.  In  October,  1916,  he  came  to  the  United 
States  as  head  of  the  "Official  Bureau  of  French 
Information,"  and  here  he  has  remained  until  the 
present  hour.  As  such,  he  has  been  an  unofficial 
ambassador  of  France.  His  position  has  been  not 
unlike  that  of  Franklin  at  Passy  in  the  period 
that  preceded  the  formal  recognition  by  France 
of  the  United  States  and  the  Treaty  of  Alliance 

xi 


FOREWORD 

of  1778.  As  with  Franklin,  his  weapon  has  been  the 
pen  and  the  printing  press,  and  the  unfailing  tact 
with  which  he  has  carried  on  his  mission  is  not 
unworthy  of  comparison  with  that  of  Franklin. 
No  one  who  has  been  privileged  to  meet  and  know 
M.  Lauzanne  can  fail  to  be  impressed  with  his 
fine  urbanity,  his  savoir  faire  and  his  perfect  tact. 
Without  any  attempt  at  propaganda,  he  has 
greatly  impressed  American  public  opinion  by 
his  contributions  to  our  press  and  his  many  public 
addresses.  In  none  of  them  has  he  ever  made 
a  false  step  or  uttered  a  tactless  note.  His  words 
have  always  been  those  of  a  sane  moderation 
and  the  influence  that  he  has  wielded  has  been  that 
of  truth.  Apart  from  the  vigor  and  calm 
persuasiveness  of  his  utterances,  his  winning 
personality  has  made  a  deep  impression  upon  all 
Americans  who  have  been  privileged  to  come  in 
contact  with  him.  The  highest  praise  that  can  be 
accorded  to  him  is  that  he  has  been  a  true  repre- 
sentative of  his  own  noble,  generous  and  chivalrous 
nation.  Its  sweetness  and  power  have  been  exem- 
plified by  his  charming  personality. 

xii 


FOREWORD 

Although  he  has  taken  a  forceful  part  in  pos- 
sibly the  greatest  intellectual  controversy  that  has 
ever  raged  among  men,  he  has  from  first  to  last 
been  the  gentleman  and  it  has  been  his  quiet  dig- 
nity and  gentleness  that  has  added  force  to  all  that 
he  has  written  and  uttered,  especially  at  the  time 
when  America  was  the  greatest  neutral  forum  of 
public  opinion. 

If  "good  wine  needs  no  bush  and  a  good  play 
needs  no  epilogue,"  then  a  good  book  needs  no 
prologue.  Therefore  I  shall  not  refer  to  the 
simplicity  and  charm,  with  which  M.  Lauzanne 
has  told  the  story  with  which  this  book  deals. 
The  reader  will  judge  that  for  himself;  and  unless 
the  writer  of  this  foreword  is  much  mistaken,  that 
judgment  will  be  wholly  favorable.  There  have 
been  many  war  books — a  very  deluge  of  literature 
in  which  thinking  men  have  been  hopelessly  sub- 
merged— ^but  most  books  of  wartime  reminis- 
cences do  not  ring  true.  There  is  too  obvious  an 
attempt  to  be  dramatic  and  sensational.  This 
book  avoids  this  error  and  its  author  has  con- 
tented himself  with  telling  in  a  simple  and  con- 
xiii 


FOREWORD 

vincing  manner  something  of  the  part  which  he 
was  called  upon  to  play. 

I  venture  to  predict  that  all  good  Americans 
who  read  this  book  will  become  the  friends, 
through  the  printed  pages,  of  this  gifted  and 
brilliant  writer,  and  if  it  were  possible  for  such 
Americans  to  increase  their  love  and  admiration 
for  France,  then  this  book  would  deepen  the  pro- 
found regard  in  which  America  holds  its  ancient 

ally. 

James  M.  Beck. 


XIV 


CONTENTS 


PAGl! 


Why  France  Is  Fighting 

The  declaration  of  war  and  the  French  mobili- 
zation— The  invasion  and  the  tragic  days 
of  Paris  in  August  and  September,  191 4<: 
personal  reminiscences — The  premeditated 
cruelties  of  Germany:  new  documents — 
The  German  organized  spying  system  ia 
France 1 

II 

How  France  Is  Fighting 

France  fighting  with  her  men,  her  women  and 
her  children — The  men  show  that  they 
know  how  to  suffer:  episodes  of  the  Mame 
and  of  Verdun — The  women  encourage  the 
men  to  fight  and  to  sufi'er:  some  illustra- 
tions— Sacred  Union  of  all  Frenchmen 
against  the  enemy — all,  without  any  dis- 
tinction of  class  or  religion,  die  smiling — 
Letters  of  soldiers — The  organization  in 
the  rear:  the  work  in  the  factories    .         •       51 


CONTENTS 

III 
France  Suffering  But  Not  Bled  White 

PAQB 

Despite  her  sufferings,  France  is  able  to  pay  20 
billions  of  dollars,  for  the  war,  in  three 
years — French  commerce  and  French  work 
during  the  war — France  is  helping  her 
allies  from  a  military  standpoint  and 
financially — The  saving  of  Serbia      .         .       94 

IV 

The  War  Aims  of  France 

Restitution:  Alsace-Lorraine  —  Restoration: 
The  devastated  and  looted  territories. 
Guarantees:    The  Society  of  Nations        .     138 


APPENDICES 

Appendix  I. — How  Germans  Forced  War  on 

France 179 

Appendix  II. — How  Germans  Treat  an  Am- 
bassador     183 

Appendix  III. — How  Germans  Are  Waging 

War 196 

Appendix    IV. — How   Germans   Occupy   the 

Territory  of  an  Enemy  ....     200 

Appendix  V. — How  Germans  Treat  Alsace- 
Lorraine 206 

Appendix    VI. — How    Germans    Understand 

Future  Peace 229 

xvi 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 


•WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

HAD  you  been  in  Paris  late  in  the  after- 
noon of  Monday,  August  third,  nine- 
teen fourteen,  you  might  have  seen  a 
slight  man,  whose  reddish  face  was  adorned  with 
a  thick  white  mustache,  walk  out  of  the  German 
Embassy,  which  was  situated  on  the  Rue  de  Lille 
near  the  Boulevard  St.  Germain.  Along  the  bou- 
levard and  across  the  Pont  de  la  Concorde  he 
walked  in  a  manner  calculated  to  attract  atten- 
tion. He  approached  the  animated  and  peevish 
groups  of  citizens  that  had  formed  a  little  before 
for  the  purpose  of  discussing  the  imminent  war 
as  if  he  wanted  them  to  notice  him.     You  would 

1 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

have  said  that  he  was  trying  to  be  recognized  and 
to  take  part  in  the  discussions. 

But  no  one  paid  any  attention  to  him. 

Finally  he  came  to  the  Quai  d'Orsay,  opened 
the  Gate  of  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Affairs,  and 
said  to  the  attendant  who  hastened  to  open  the 
door  for  him : 

"Announce  the  German  Ambassador  to  the 
Prime  Minister." 

He  was  Baron  de  Schoen,  Ambassador  Extra- 
ordinary and  Minister  Plenipotentiary  of  his  Ger- 
manic Majesty,  William  the  Second.  For  two  days 
he  had  wandered  through  the  most  crowded  streets 
and  avenues  in  Paris,  hoping  for  some  injury, 
some  insult,  some  overt  act  which  would  have  per- 
mitted him  to  say  that  Germany  in  his  person  had 
been  provoked,  insulted  by  France.  But  there 
had  been  no  violence,  the  insult  had  not  been  of- 
fered, the  overt  act  had  not  occurred.  Then,  tired 
of  this  method,  de  Schoen  took  the  initiative  and 
presented  a  declaration  of  war  from  his  govern- 
ment. 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

The  declaration,  as  history  wiU  record,  was 
expressed  in  these  terms : 

The  German  administrative  and  military  au- 
thorities have  established  a  certain  number  of 
flagrantly  hostile  acts  committed  on  German  ter- 
ritory by  French  military  aviators.  Several  of 
these  have  openly  violated  the  neutrality  of  Bel- 
gium by  flying  over  the  territory  of  that  country ; 
one  has  attempted  to  destroy  buildings  near 
Wesel ;  others  have  been  seen  in  the  district  of  the 
Eifel,  one  has  thrown  bombs  on  the  railway  near 
Carlsruhe  and  Nuremberg. 

I  am  instructed  and  I  have  the  honor  to  inform 
your  Excellency,  that  in  the  presence  of  these 
acts  of  aggression  the  German  Empire  considers 
itself  in  a  state  of  war  with  France  in  consequence 
of  the  acts  of  the  latter  Power. 

At  the  same  time  I  have  the  honor  to  bring  to 
the  knowledge  of  your  Excellency  that  the  German 
authorities  will  detain  French  mercantile  vessels 
in  German  ports,  but  they  will  release  them  if, 
within  forty-eight  hours,  they  are  assured  of  com- 
plete reciprocity. 

My  diplomatic  mission  having  thus  come  to  an 
end,  it  only  remains  for  me  to  request  your  Ex- 
cellency to  be  good  enough  to  furnish  me  with 
my  passports,  and  to  take  the  steps  you  consider 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

suitable  to  assure  my  return  to  Germany,  with  the 
staff  of  the  Embassy,  as  well  as  with  the  staff  of 
the  Bavarian  Legation  and  of  the  French  Consul- 
ate General  in  Paris. 

Be  good  enough,  M.  le  President,  to  receive  the 
assurances  of  my  deepest  respect. 

(Signed)     de  Schoen. 

Immediately  M.  Rene  Viviani,  the  French  Pre- 
mier and  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs,  protested 
against  the  statements  of  this  extraordinary  dec- 
laration. No  French  aviator  had  flown  over  Bel- 
gium; no  French  aviator  had  come  near  Wesel; 
no  French  aviator  had  flown  in  the  direction  of 
Eif el ;  nor  had  hurled  bombs  on  the  railroad  near 
Carlsruhe  or  Nuremberg.  And  less  than  two 
years  later  a  German,  Dr.  Schwalbe,  the  Burgo- 
master of  Nuremberg,  confirmed  M.  Viviani's  in- 
dignant denial  of  the  German  accusations: 

"It  is  false,"  wrote  Dr.  Schwalbe  in  the 
Deutsche  Medizvmsche  Wochenschrift,  "that 
French  aviators  dropped  bombs  on  the  railway 
at  Nuremberg.  The  general  of  the  third  Bavarian 
army  corps,  which  was  stationed  in  the  vicinity, 

4 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

assured  me  that  he  knew  nothing  of  the  attempt 
except  from  the  newspapers.  .  .  ." 

But  a  blow  had  just  been  struck  that  announced 
the  rising  of  the  curtain  on  the  most  frightful 
tragedy  the  universe  has  ever  known.  This  an- 
nouncement was  contained  in  the  brief,  plain 
words  of  the  declaration  of  war. 

De  Schoen  left  the  Ministry  of  Foreign  Af- 
fairs, where  he  had  been  courteously  received  for 
many  years,  and  made  his  way  out.  He  was  es- 
corted by  M.  Philippe  Berthelot,  who  was  at  the 
time  direct eur  politique  at  the  Quai  d'Orsay.  As 
he  was  going  out  of  the  door,  de  Schoen  pointed 
to  the  city,  which,  with  its  trees,  its  houses,  and 
its  monuments,  could  be  seen  clearly  on  the  other 
side  of  the  Seine. 

"Poor  Paris,"  he  exclaimed,  "what  will  happen 
to  her?" 

At  the  same  time  he  offered  his  hand  to  M. 
Berthelot,  but  the  latter  contented  himself  with  a 
silent  bow,  as  if  he  had  neither  seen  the  proffered 
hand  nor  heard  the  question. 

It  was  a  quarter  before  seven  o'clock  in  the 
5 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

evening.     From  that  time  on  France  has  been  at 
war  with  Germany. 


Mobilization  had  commenced  the  previous  eve- 
ning. To  be  exact,  it  was  on  Sunday,  August 
third,  at  midnight. 

How  many  times  the  French  people  had  thought 
of  that  mobilization  during  the  last  twenty  years, 
in  proportion  as  Germany  grew  more  aggressive, 
more  brutal  and  more  insulting!  Personally  I 
h«ui  often  looked  at  the  little  red  ticket  fastened 
to  my  military  card,  on  which  were  written  these 
brief  words: 

In  time  of  mobilization.  Lieutenant  Lauzanne 
(Stephane)  will  report  on  the  second  day  of 
mobihzation  to  the  railroad  station  nearest  his 
home  and  there  entrain  immediately  for  Alen9on. 

And  each  time  I  looked  at  the  little  red  card, 
I  felt  a  bit  anxious.  .  .  .  Mobilization !  The  rail- 
road station!  The  first  train!  What  a  mob  of 
people,  what  an  overturning  of  everything,  what 
a  lot  of  disorder  there  would  be !    Well,  there  had 

6 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

been  neither  disorder  nor  disturbance  nor  a  mob, 
for  everything  had  taken  place  in  a  manner  that 
was  marvelously  simple  and  calm. 

Monday,  August  third,  at  sunrise  I  had  gone 
to  the  Gare  des  Invalides.  There  was  no  mob, 
there  was  no  crowd.  Some  policemen  were  walk- 
ing in  solitary  state  along  the  sidewalk,  which  was 
deserted.  The  station  master,  to  whom  I  pre- 
sented my  card,  told  me,  in  the  most  extraordi- 
narily calm  voice  in  the  world,  as  if  he  had  been 
doing  the  same  thing  every  morning: 

''Track  number  5.  Your  train  leaves  at  6.^7." 
And  the  train  left  at  6.27,  like  any  good  little 
train  that  is  on  time.  It  had  left  quietly ;  it  was 
almost  empty.  It  had  followed  the  Seine,  and  I 
had  seen  Paris  lighted  up  by  the  peaceable  morn- 
ing glow,  Paris  which  was  still  asleep.  And  I  had 
rubbed  my  eyes,  asking  myself  if  I  wasn't  dream- 
ing, if  I  wasn't  asleep.  Were  we  really  at  war? 
My  eyes  were  seeing  nothing  of  it,  but  my  memory 
kept  recalling  the  fact.  It  recalled  the  unforget- 
able  scenes  of  those  last  days — that  scene  espe- 
cially, at  four  o'clock  in  the  evening  on  the  first 

T 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

of  August,  when  the  crowd  along  the  boulevard 
had  suddenly  seen  the  mobilization  orders  posted 
in  the  window  of  a  newspaper  office.  A  shout  burst 
forth,  a  shout  I  shall  hear  until  my  last  moment, 
which  made  me  tremble  from  the  crown  of  my 
head  to  the  soles  of  my  feet.  It  was  a  shout  that 
seemed  to  come  from  the  very  bowels  of  the  earth, 
the  shout  of  a  people  who,  for  years,  had  waited 
for  that  moment. 

Then  the  "Marseillaise" !  Then  a  short,  imper- 
ious demand: 

"The  flags !    We  want  the  flags  !*' 

And  flags  burst  forth  from  all  quarters  of  Paris, 
decorated  in  the  twinkling  of  an  eye  as  if  it  were  a 
fete  day.  Yes,  all  that  had  really  happened.  All 
that  had  taken  place.    We  were  reaUy  at  war. 

Little  by  little  the  train  filled  up.  It  stopped 
at  every  station,  and  at  every  station  men  got 
aboard.  They  came  in  gayly  and  confidently,  bid- 
ding farewell  to  the  women  who  h«ui  accompanied 
them  and  wfio  stayed  behind  the  gate  to  do  their 
weeping.  Everybody  was  mixed  in  together  in 
the    compartments   without   any   distinctions    of 

8 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

rank,  station,  class  or  anything  else.  At  Argen- 
tan  I  saw  some  rough  Norman  farmers  enter  the 
coaches,  talking  with  the  same  good  natured  calm- 
ness as  if  they  were  going  away  on  a  business  trip. 
One  expression  was  repeated  again  and  again: 

"If  we've  got  to  go,  we've  got  to  go." 

One  farmer  said: 

"They  are  looking  after  our  good.  I  shall  fight 
until  I  fall.'' 

The  spirit  of  the  whole  French  people  spoke 
from  these  mouths.  You  felt  the  firm  purpose  of 
the  nation  come  out  of  the  very  earth. 

The  country  side  presented  an  unwonted  ap- 
pearance. I  remember  vividly  the  view  the  broad 
plains  of  Beauce  offered.  They  looked  as  if  they 
were  dead  or  faUen  into  a  lethargy.  Their  life 
had  come  to  an  abrupt  end  on  Saturday,  the  first 
of  August,  at  four  o'clock  in  the  afternoon.  We 
saw  mounds  of  grain  that  had  been  cut  and  was 
still  scattered  on  the  ground,  with  the  scythe  glis- 
tening nearby.  We  saw  pitchforks  resting  along- 
side the  hay  they  had  just  finished  tossing.  We 
saw  sheaves  lying  on  the  ground  with  no  one  to 

9 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

take  them  away.  The  very  villages  were  deserted ; 
not  a  human  being  appeared  in  them.  You  would 
have  said  that  this  train  that  was  passing  through 
in  the  wake  of  hundreds  of  other  trains  had  blot- 
ted out  all  the  inhabitants  of  the  region. 

We  detrained  at  Alen9on,  arriving  there  about 
mid-day.  Alen9on  is  a  tiny  Norman  village  that 
is  habitually  calm  and  peaceful,  but  on  that  day 
it  was  crowded  with  people.  An  enormous  wave, 
the  wave  of  the  men  who  were  mobilizing,  rushed 
through  the  main  street  of  the  little  town  in  the 
direction  of  the  two  barracks.  I  went  with  the 
current.  My  captain,  whom  I  found  in  the  middle 
of  a  part  of  the  barracks,  had  not  even  had  time 
to  put  OH  his  uniform.  He  explained  the  situation 
to  me  with  military  brevity: 

"It's  very  simple.  .  .  .  It's  now  three  o'clock 
in  the  afternoon.  The  day  after  tomorrow,  at 
six  o'clock  in  the  morning,  we  entrain  for  Paris. 
We  have  one  day  to  clothe,  equip  and  arm  our 
company." 

It  is  no  small  matter  to  clothe,  equip  and  arm 
10 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

two  hundred  and  fifty  men  in  twenty-four  hours. 
You  have  to  find  in  the  enormous  pile,  which  is 
in  a  comer  of  a  shed,  two  hundred  and  fifty  coats, 
pairs  of  trousers  and  hats  which  will  fit  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  entirely  separate  and  distinct 
chests,  legs  and  heads.  You  have  to  find  five 
hundred  pairs  of  shoes  for  two  hundred  and  fifty 
pairs  of  feet.  You  have  to  arrange  the  men  in 
rank  according  to  their  heights,  form  the  sec- 
tions and  the  squads.  You  have  to  have  soup  pre- 
pared and  transport  provisions.  You  have  to  go 
and  get  rifles  and  cartridges.  You  have  to  get 
funds  advanced  for  the  company  accounts  from 
the  very  beginning  of  the  campaign.  You  have 
to  get  your  duties  organized,  make  up  accounts 
and  prepare  statements.  You  have  to  breathe 
the  breath  of  life  into  the  little  machine  which  is 
going  to  take  its  place  in  the  big  machine. 

And  there  was  not  a  person  there  to  help  us  to 
do  this — ^not  a  line  officer,  not  a  second  lieutenant. 
The  captain  had  to  act  on  his  own,  to  think  on 
his  own,  to  decide  everything  on  his  own.    He  had 

11 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

to  do  aU  by  himself  the  work  that  yesterday  twen- 
ty-five department  store  heads,  twenty-five  shoe 
makers  and  twenty-five  certified  public  account- 
ants would  have  had  a  hard  time  doing. 

He  did  it !  Every  captain  in  the  French  Army 
did  it.  And  the  next  morning  at  six  o'clock  our 
little  machine  was  ready  to  go  and  take  its  place 
in  the  operations  of  the  big  machine.  The  follow- 
ing day,  at  six  o'clock,  we  entrained  again;  but 
no  longer  was  it  the  confused  and  disorganized 
crowd  that  it  had  been  the  evening  before.  It  was 
a  company  with  arms  and  leaders;  a  company 
which  had  already  made  the  acquaintance  of  dis- 
cipline. That  was  proved  by  the  silence  reigning 
everywhere.  At  the  moment  of  departure  the 
Colonel  had  commanded: 

"Silence!" 

There  was  not  a  sound.  The  long  train,  crowd- 
ed with  soldiers,  was  a  silent  train  which  passed 
through  the  open  country,  the  towns  and  the  vil- 
lages all  the  way  to  Paris  without  a  sound  except 
the  puffing  of  the  engine.  In  the  evening,  silent 
always,  we  detrained  at  Paris  and  marched  to  a 

12 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

barracks  situated  to  the  north  of  the  capital.    We 
were  to  stay  there  a  month. 


The  story  of  Paris  during  the  month  of  August, 
1914,  is  an  extraordinary  one  that  would  de- 
serve an  entire  volume  to  itself.  That  feverish  city 
has  never  hved  through  hours  that  were  more 
calm  and  peaceful.  During  the  first  two  weeks 
Paris  seemed  to  be  in  a  sweet,  peaceful  dream,  in 
which  the  citizens  listened  eagerly  for  sounds  of 
victory  coming  from  the  far  distant  horizon.  On 
the  twenty-fifth  of  August  Paris,  which  had  heard 
only  vague  echoes  of  the  Battle  of  Charleroi, 
awakened  with  a  jolt  when  it  read  the  famous 
communique  beginning  with  the  words:  **De  la 
Somme  aux  Vosges,  ..." 

So  the  enemy  was  already  at  the  Sonune,  a  few 
days'  march  from  the  capital!  But  the  awaken- 
ing was  as  free  from  disturbance  as  the  dream 
had  been.  Paris  felt  absolute  confidence  in  the 
army,  in  Joffre;  and  the  Parisian  reasoning  was 
expressed  in  one  phrase,  "The  army  has  retreated, 
but  it  is  neither  destroyed  nor  beaten;  as  long 
13 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

as  the  army  is  there,  Paris  has  nothing  to 
fear.  .  .  .'*  And  when  Sunday  the  thirteenth  of 
August  came,  Paris  was  as  calm  and  confident  as 
it  was  on  the  first  day  of  the  war. 

I  shall  remember  the  thirtieth  of  August  for  a 
long  time. 

They  had  posted  on  all  the  walls  two  notices. 
One  of  them  was  large,  the  other  small.  The  large 
one  was  a  proclamation  of  the  Government  an- 
nouncing the  departure  of  its  officials  for  Bor- 
deaux: 

Frenchmen  ! 

For  several  week  our  troops  and  the  enemy's 
army  have  been  engaged  in  a  series  of  bloody  bat- 
tles. The  bravery  of  our  soldiers  has  gained 
them  marked  advantages  at  several  points.  But 
in  the  north  the  pressure  of  the  German  forces 
has  compelled  us  to  withdraw. 

This  retirement  imposes  a  regrettably  necessary 
decision  on  the  President  of  the  Republic  and  the 
Government.  To  protect  national  safety  the  gov- 
ernment officials  have  to  leave  Paris  at  once. 

Under  the  command  of  an  eminent  leader,  a 
French  army,  fuU  of  bravery  and  resource,  will 
defend  the  capital  and  its  people  against  the  in- 

14 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

vader.     But  at  the  same  time  war  will  be  carried 
on  over  the  rest  of  the  territory. 

The  small  notice  was  from  General  Gallieni,  the 
new  Governor  of  Paris.  It  had,  in  its  brevity,  the 
beauty  of  an  ancient  inscription : 

"I  have  been  ordered  to  defend  Paris.  I  shall 
obey  this  command  until  the  end." 

That  same  Sunday,  the  thirtieth  of  August, 
was  the  first  day  the  Taubes  came  over  Paris.  By 
chance  I  was  guarding  one  of  the  city's  gates.  I 
saw  the  airplane  coming  from  a  distance.  I  had 
not  the  least  doubt  about  it  for  it  had  the  silhou- 
ette of  a  bird  of  prey  that  rendered  the  German 
planes  so  easily  recognizable  at  that  time.  For 
that  matter,  no  one  was  deceived  by  it,  and  from 
all  the  batteries,  forts  and  other  positions  a  vio- 
lent fusillade  greeted  it.  There  was  firing  from  the 
streets,  windows,  courts  and  roofs.  I  followed  it 
through  my  field  glass,  and  for  a  moment  I 
thought  it  had  been  hit,  for  it  paused  in  its  flight. 
But  this  was  an  optical  illusion.  .  .  .  The  plane 
15 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

simply  flew  higher,  having  without  doubt  heard 
the  sound  of  the  fusillade  and  the  bullets  having 
perhaps  whistled  too  close  to  the  pilot's  ears. 
When  he  was  almost  over  my  post,  a  light  white 
cloud  appeared  under  its  wings  and,  in  the  ten 
ensuing  seconds,  there  followed  a  terrible  series  of 
sounds,  for  a  bomb  had  just  fallen  and  exploded 
very  near  at  hand.  But  so  entrancing  was  it  to 
observe  the  flight  of  this  pirate  who,  in  spite  of 
everything,  continued  in  his  audacious  course,  that 
I  gazed  at  the  heavens,  trying  to  determine  whether 
or  not  I  saw  once  more  the  little  white  cloud,  the 
precursor  of  the  machine  of  death. 

And  everyone  who  was  near  me — ^workmen, 
passers-by,  women,  children — stayed  there  too, 
their  feet  firmly  on  the  ground,  their  glances  lost 
in  the  limitless  sky.  No  one  ran  away;  no  one 
hid;  no  one  sought  refuge  behind  a  door  or  in  a 
cellar.  It's  a  characteristic  of  airplane  bombs 
that  they  frighten  no  one,  even  when  they  kill. 
The  machine  you  see  does  not  frighten  you ;  only 
the  machine  you  can't  see  upsets  your  nerves. 

However  that  may  be,  the  curiosity  of  Paris 
16 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

was  insatiable.  Even  in  the  tragic  hours  we  were 
living  through  at  that  time,  this  curiosity  re- 
mained as  eager,  ardent  and  amused  as  ever.  Every 
afternoon,  at  the  stroke  of  four,  crowds  collected 
in  the  squares  and  avenues.  The  motive  was  to 
see  tha  Taubes !  Since  one  Taube  had  flown  over 
the  city,  no  one  doubted  that  a  second  one  would 
come  the  next  day.  A  girl's  boarding  school  ob- 
tained a  free  afternoon  to  enjoy  the  spectacle.  The 
midinettes  were  allowed  to  leave  their  work.  At 
Montmartre,  where  the  steps  of  the  Butte  gave  a 
better  chance  of  scanning  the  horizon,  places  were 
in  great  demand. 

There  was  a  crowd  along  the  fortifications  to 
see  the  works  for  the  defense  on  which,  by  Greneral 
Gallieni's  order,  men  were  working.  Thousands 
of  spectators  of  both  sexes,  but  especially  of 
women,  were  examining  the  bases  that  were  being 
put  in  for  the  guns,  the  openings  they  were  making 
to  serve  as  loopholes,  the  joists  they  were  putting 
across  the  gates,  and  the  paving  stones  with  which 
the  entrances  were  being  barricaded.  This  crowd 
did  not  want  to  believe  in  the  proxhnity  of  the 

17 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

enemy.  Or,  if  it  believed  it,  it  didn't  want  to  admit 
that  there  was  danger.  Or,  if  it  admitted  that  there 
was  danger,  it  wanted  to  share  in  it.  Above  every- 
thing it  wanted  to  see ;  it  wanted  to  see ! 

The  last  night  in  August  I  had  a  hard  time 
freeing  the  approaches  of  the  gate  I  was  guard- 
ing. There  were  only  women,  but  there  were  thou- 
sands of  them  and  neither  prayer  nor  argument 
could  persuade  them  to  make  up  their  minds  to  go 
home. 

"Nothing  will  happen,"  I  told  them.  "Look 
here  now,  be  reasonable  and  go  home  to  bed." 

**But  we  want  to  see.  .  .  ." 

"What  do  you  want  to  see  ?'^ 

"Want  to  see  what  kind  of  a  reception  the 
Prussians  will  get  if  they  come.'* 

Aside  from  this  the  mob  was  remarkably  easy 
to  get  on  with.  A  strict  order  had  forbidden  that 
anyone  be  permitted  to  enter  or  leave  Paris  until 
sunrise.  As  a  result  the  capital  found  itself  cut 
off  from  the  suburbs,  and  lots  of  little  working 
girls,  who  came  in  for  the  day  from  Clichy  or 
Levallois-Perret,  couldn't  get  back  to  their  homes 

18 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

in  the  evening.    They  had  to  camp  out  under  the 
stars. 

"It's  very  amusing,"  they  said,  "here  we  are 
just  like  soldiers." 

I  even  heard  one  of  them  say: 
"What  a  pity  there  isn't  always  war.'^ 
That  same  night,  about  eleven  o'clock,  a  heavy 
sound  was  heard  coming  from  the  direction  of  the 
city.     Some  urchins  shouted: 

"It's  the  soldiers.  It's  the  soldiers." 
An  entire  Algerian  division  was,  as  a  matter  of 
fact,  detraining  and  hurrying  to  fight  before 
Paris.  Behind  it  followed  a  long  line  of  taxi-cabs, 
the  famous  line  of  taxi-cabs  requisitioned  by  Gen- 
eral Galheni  to  carry  munitions  to  the  battle  field 
of  the  Ourcq.  They  made  an  incomparable  spec- 
tacle, that  magnificent  summer  night,  in  the 
bright  moonlight,  the  long  column  of  Algerian 
cavalry,  with  their  shining  burnouses,  on  fiery  lit- 
tle horses.  Applause  burst  forth  from  the  mob 
and  reached  the  soldiers.  The  women  threw 
kisses  at  them,  but  they  overwhelmed  my  men  and 
me  with  reproaches: 

19 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

"See,"  they  shrieked  at  us,  "if  we  had  minded 
you  and  gone  home,  we  wouldn't  have  seen  them." 


Paris,  which  didn't  know  about  the  Battle  of 
Charleroi,  knew  about  the  Battle  of  the  Mame. 
Paris  knew  about  the  Battle  of  the  Mame  not  only 
on  account  of  the  troops  who  marched  through 
its  streets,  but  because  it  heard  the  big  guns  roar 
for  three  days,  without  stopping,  towards  the 
north. 

What  has  not  already  been  written  and  said 
about  the  Battle  of  the  Mame,  a  conflict  which 
will  remain  legendary  in  history?  What  will  not 
be  said  and  written  on  that  subject  in  the  future? 
.  .  .  Some  writers  will  see  in  it  a  miracle,  others 
a  strategic  action  engineered  by  a  genius,  others 
a  chance  stroke  of  destiny.  The  truth  of  the 
matter  is  more  simple  and  appealing  than  any 
of  these  explanations  and,  although  the  whole 
truth  is  not  yet  known  about  the  fight  at  the 
Mame,  enough  is  known  to  make  clear  the  two  or 
three  chief  reasons  why  victory  came  to  France 
20 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

and  defeat  to  Germany,  safety  to  civilization  and 
a  repulse  to  barbarism. 

To  be  sure  there  was  a  great  deal  of  strategy 
in  it;  and  the  stroke  that  was  conceived  in  the 
master  brain  of  JofFre  and  carried  out  by  Gen- 
erals Gallieni  and  Maunoury — a  stroke  which  con- 
sisted in  forming  a  new  army  on  the  extreme  right 
of  the  German  hordes  to  come  and  hurl  itself 
sharply  against  these  hordes — ^was  a  brave  and 
bold  maneuver  which  prepared  the  way  for  vic- 
tory. 

But  this  maneuver  would  not  in  itself  have  suf- 
ficed to  win  the  victory  if  Maunoury  had  not  at- 
tacked with  an  irresistible  elan  on  the  extreme 
left,  upsetting  the  German  plan  of  battle;  if 
Franchet  d'Esperey  had  not  supported  Maunou- 
ry's  attack  vigorously  and  succeeded  in  breaking 
the  German  left ;  if,  especially,  Foch,  at  the  center, 
had  not  performed  unheard  of  miracles  in  break- 
ing down  the  enemy's  resistance  and  not  allowing 
his  own  lines  to  be  broken;  if,  farther  on,  de 
Langle  de  Gary  and  Sarrail  had  not  held  off  the 
Princes  of  Bavaria  and  Prussia  before  Vitry;  if, 
21 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

on  the  right,  de  Castelnau  had  not  held  until  the 
end  the  Grand  Couronne  at  Nancy.  The  first  truth 
is  that  they  were  all — Joffre,  Gallieni,  Maunoury, 
Franchet  d'Esperey,  Foch,  de  Langle  de  Gary, 
Sarrail,  Castelnau,  Dubail,  to  mention  them  in 
the  order  of  the  battle  line  from  left  to  right — 
absolutely  incomparable.  As  an  eye-witness  said, 
**each  man  was  on  his  ®wn,"  each  man  gave  the 
very  best  there  was  in  his  brain,  his  skill,  his  mind, 
his  soul,  his  heart.  The  battle  would  have  been 
lost  if  a  single  one  of  them  had  failed  once  during 
the  entire  seven  days  it  raged.  Opposed  to  the 
Huns  was  a  chain  forged  of  the  finest  steel,  every 
link  in  which  met  the  test  for  equal  and  unparal- 
leled resistance.  Therein  lay  the  miracle  of  the 
Mame! 

And  the  second  great  truth  is  that  behind  these 
generals,  who  all  showed  themselves  without  equal, 
were  armies  which,  without  exception,  had  kept 
intact  their  fighting  spirit,  that  is,  their  faith  in 
themselves,  in  their  leaders,  in  the  destiny  of  their 
country,  in  the  beauty  of  the  cause  for  which  they 
fought.  .  .  .  Enough  can  never  be  said  of  the  ele- 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

mental  importance  that  lies  in  the  morale  of  the 
fighting  men  on  the  battle  field.  It  is  lamentable 
to  hear  far  distant  strategists  reduce  the  con- 
flict of  two  peoples  to  a  problem  in  tactics  or  a 
list  of  ordnance  statistics.  It  is  enough  to  make 
angels  weep  when  spectators,  at  a  safe  distance, 
speak  of  succoring  a  beaten  people  by  sending 
them  food  stuffs,  shells  and  men.  Above  all,  be- 
jond  all,  is  that  immaterial,  incalculable,  inval- 
uable force  which  is  the  sole  true  mistress  of  war- 
fare— moral  force — fighting  spirit ! 

The  Frenchmen  in  the  Battle  of  the  Mame  kept 
their  fighting  spirit  intact.  I  remember  asking 
many  of  the  officers  attached  to  the  forces  which, 
after  the  Battle  of  Charleroi,  retreated  under  a 
broiling  sun,  along  roads  burning  with  heat, 
through  a  suffocating  dust,  how  they  felt  at  this 
disheartening  time.  All  of  them  answered,  "We  did 
not  know  where  we  were  going  or  what  we  were 
doing,  but  we  did  know  one  thing — that  we  would 
beat  them!"  One  writer,  Pierre  Laserre,  de- 
scribed this  retreat  in  the  words,  "Their  bodies 
were  retreating,  but  not  their  souls!"      This  is 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

proven  by  the  arrival  on  the  fifth  of  September  of 
Joffre's  immortal  order,  "The  hour  has  come  to 
hold  our  positions  at  any  cost,  and  to  fight  rather 
than  retreat.  .  .  .  No  longer  must  we  look  at 
the  enemy  over  our  shoulders;  the  time  has  come 
to  employ  all  our  efforts  in  attacking  and  defeat- 
ing him."  .  .  .  That  evening,  when  they  heard 
their  leader's  appeal,  the  hearts  of  the  men 
bounded  in  response.  The  next  morning,  at  dawn, 
their  bodies  leaped  up  and  hurled  themselves  on 
the  enemy.  Therein  lay  the  miracle  of  the  Marne ! 
Finally,  at  the  very  hour  when  the  fighting 
spirit  of  the  French  Army  had  never  been  higher, 
the  fighting  spirit  of  the  German  Army  had  never 
been  lower.  It  was  low  because  the  physical 
strength  of  the  Germans  was  low,  worn  out,  and 
broken  by  the  shameful  orgies,  the  disgraceful 
drinking  which  had  reduced  these  men  to  the  level 
of  swine.  It  was  low  because  the  German  fighting 
men  had  been  led  to  believe  that  they  would  have 
to  fight  no  longer,  that  the  great  effort  was  ended, 
that  there  was  no  French  Army  to  put  a  stop 
to  their  pillaging  and  burning.  "Tomorrow  we 
S4 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

enter  Paris,  we  are  going  to  the  Moulin  Rouge," 
von  Kluck's  soldiers  said  in  their  jargon  to  the 
inhabitants  of  Compiegne.  "Tomorrow  we  will 
burn  Bar-le-Duc,  Poincare's  home  town,"  the 
Crown  Prince's  soldiers  said.  What  sort  of  re- 
sistance could  such  men  oppose  to  JofFre's  sol- 
diers? Their  spirit,  granting  that  they  had  ever 
had  any,  was  broken  beforehand.  And  that  is 
another  thing  that  will  explain  the  outcome  of  the 
Battle  of  the  Mame. 


What  Paris  knew  very  quickly,  very  com- 
pletely and  very  surely  were  the  details  of  fright- 
ful looting  and  of  the  first  atrocities  perpetrated 
by  the  Germans,  who  demonstrated  a  premeditated 
intention  to  destroy,  defile  and  wipe  out  every- 
thing in  their  path.  And  Paris  was  doubtless  the 
first  city  in  France  to  comprehend  the  significance 
of  this  war,  which  is  a  war  of  civilization  against 
barbarism,  a  sacred  war  in  which  the  forces  of 
humanity  raise  a  rampart  of  human  breasts 
against  the  violent  reappearance  of  primitive 
savagery. 

25 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

Those  of  us  who  had  a  hand  in  some  part  of  the 
Battle  of  the  Marne  were  not  slow  to  comprehend 
who  the  enemy  was  we  were  fighting  and  why  we 
had  to  fight  him  to  the  death. 

Among  the  many  things  that  will  be  always  en- 
graved on  the  tablets  of  my  memory,  the  deepest 
is  of  the  time  when  I  was  on  guard  at  the  field 
of  battle  on  the  Ourcq,  north  of  Meaux,  on  the 
extremity  of  the  battle  line  of  the  Marne.  Field 
of  battle  I  have  just  written.  No,  it  was  not  a 
field  of  battle  but  a  field  of  carnage.  I  have  for- 
gotten the  corpses  I  met  in  the  roads  or  in  the 
fields  with  their  grinning  faces  and  their  distorted 
attitudes.  But  I  shall  never  forget  the  ruin  that 
was  everywhere,  the  abominable  manner  in  which 
the  fields  had  been  laid  waste,  the  sacrilegious  pil- 
lage of  homes.  That  bore  the  trade  mark  of  Ger- 
man "Kultur."  That  trade  mark  will  be  enough 
to  dishonor  a  nation  for  centuries. 

I  see  again  those  humble  villages  situated  along 

the  road  to  Meaux,  Penchard,  Marcilly,  Chambry, 

Etrepilly,  where  a  barbarian  horde  had  passed. 

Since  there  were  no  inhabitants  remaining — men 

26 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

whose  throats  could  be  cut,  women  who  could  be 
violated,  or  babies  to  shoot  down — the  horde  had 
vented  its  rage  on  the  furniture  and  the  poor  little 
familiar  objects  in  which  each  one  of  us  puts  a  bit 
of  his  soul. 

I  arrived  in  Etrepilly  at  the  same  time  as  a  de- 
tachment of  Zouaves.  While  they  piously  buried 
their  companions  who  had  fallen  in  forcing  their 
way  into  the  village,  I  wandered  alone  among  the 
ruins.  There  had  been  a  hundred  houses  there, 
and  not  a  single  one  was  untouched.  Some  had 
been  hit  by  shells,  and  the  shell  which  burst  in  the 
interior  of  the  house  had  destroyed  everything. 
That,  of  course,  was  war,  and  there  was  nothing 
to  say  about  it. 

But  other  houses,  which  had  been  spared  by 
shell  fire,  had  not  been  spared  by  the  Kaiser's 
soldiery.  The  Barbarians  had  placed  their  claws 
on  them.  Everything  had  been  taken  out  of  the 
houses  and  scattered  to  the  four  winds  of  heaven. 
Here  is  a  portrait  that  has  been  wrenched  from  its 
frame  and  trampled  on.  A  baby's  bathtub  has 
been  carried  into  the  garden,  and  the  soldiers  have 
27 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

deposited  their  excrement  in  it.  There  are  chairs 
that  have  been  smashed  by  the  kicks  of  heavy  boots 
and  wardrobes  that  have  been  disemboweled.  Here 
is  a  fine  old  mahogany  table  that  has  been  carried 
into  the  fields  for  five  hundred  meters  and  then 
broken  in  two.  An  old  red  damask  armchair, 
with  wings  at  the  sides,  one  of  those  old  armchairs 
in  which  the  grandmothers  of  France  sit  by  the 
fire  in  the  evening  has  been  torn  in  shreds  by  knife 
thrusts.  Linen  is  mixed  with  mud ;  the  white  veil 
some  girl  wore  at  her  first  communion  is  defiled 
with  excrement.  .  .  .  An  old  man  is  wandering 
among  the  ruins.  He  has  just  come  back  to  the 
devastated  village.     He  says  to  me  simply: 

"I  saw  them  in  1870.  They  came  here,  but  they 
didn't  do  this.    They  are  savages." 

A  woman  was  there,  too.  She  had  come  an  hour 
or  so  ago  with  the  old  man,  and  she  stood  on  the 
step  of  her  defiled,  despoiled  home  where  the 
curtains  hung  in  tatters  at  the  windows.  She 
saw  me  pass  by.  She  wanted  to  speak  to  me,  but 
her  voice  stuck  in  her  throat.  There  she  stood, 
28 


WHY  FEANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

her  arms  extended  like  a  great  cross.  She  could 
only  sob: 

"Look!    Look!" 

And  she  was  like  a  symbol  of  the  whole  wretched 
business. 

The  men  who  do  such  deeds  are  the  men  France 
is  fighting. 

Vincy-Manoeuvre  was  another  one  of  the  vil- 
lages. It  is  situated  near  the  border  of  the  De- 
partment of  the  Oise.  It  was  still  in  flames  when 
I  entered  it.  On  the  outskirts  of  the  hamlet  there 
used  to  be  a  large  factory.  Only  the  iron  frame- 
work of  this  factory  remained ;  the  ashes  had  com- 
menced to  smoke,  giving  forth  flames  from  time 
to  time.  Here  also  every  house  had  been  destroyed 
and  pillaged.  Only  the  church  remained  standing, 
and  on  the  belfry  which  was  silhouetted  against 
the  sky,  the  weather  cock  seemed  to  shudder  with 
horror. 

Bottles  covered  the  ground  everjrwhere  at  Vincy- 
Manoeuvre.  There  were  bottles  in  the  streets, 
along  the  highways,  in  the  fields.  They  marked 
29 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

the  road  by  which  the  vanquished  hordes  had  re- 
treated. I  counted  almost  two  hundred  in  one 
trench,  where  a  German  battery  had  been  placed. 
They  lay  pell-meU,  mixed  in  with  unexploded 
shells.  Panic  had  apparently  swept  the  gunners 
away.  They  had  not  had  time  to  carry  off  their 
shells,  so  they  had  left  them  behind.  But  they 
had  had  time  to  empty  the  bottles.  Absinthe, 
brandy,  rum,  champagne,  beer,  and  wine  had  all 
been  consumed,  and  the  labels  lay  alongside  of 
each  other.  Drunken,  bloodthirsty  brutes,  thiev- 
ing, sickening,  nauseous  beasts  were  what  had  de- 
scended upon  France  and  passed  through  her 
country.  Ruins,  ashes  and  filth  were  the  traces 
left  behind  by  the  German  mob. 

Some  hundreds  of  yards  from  the  village  I  no- 
ticed a  woman  lost  in  the  immense  beet  fields.  Ap- 
parently she  was  unharmed.  I  walked  in  her  di- 
rection, thrusting  aside  with  my  legs  corpses  of 
men  and  horses,  scaling  the  trenches,  making  a  cir- 
cuit around  the  craters  made  by  shells.  Suddenly 
what  was  my  surprise  at  seeing  two  German  sol- 
diers, accompanied  by  a  farmer,  coming  along  a 
30 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

footpath !  They  stopped  at  six  paces,  gave  me  a 
military  salute,  and  pointed  to  the  white  brassard 
of  the  Red  Cross  they  wore  on  their  arms. 

"Where  do  you  come  from?"  I  asked.  "What 
are  you  doing  here?" 

'We  come  from  that  farm,  where  we  have  been 
for  two  days  caring  for  two  of  our  wounded.  We 
didn't  see  any  French  soldier  or  officer.  We  don't 
know  what  to  do.  We  want  to  go  to  the  village 
down  there,"  they  pointed  out  a  hamlet  two  or 
three  kilometers  oif,  "where  we  left  a  doctor  and 
one  hundred  and  fifty-three  wounded." 

"Very  good,"  I  said,  "follow  me." 

Obediently  the  two  orderlies  marched  behind 
me  to  the  village  they  had  pointed  out.  It  was 
situated  on  the  national  highway  to  Soissons.  In 
this  place  were  a  hundred  and  fifty  or  two  hundred 
Germans,  quartered  in  four  or  five  houses  under  the 
guard  of  a  company  of  Zouaves  who  had  just  ar- 
rived a  half  hour  previously.  The  German  major, 
informed  of  my  arrival,  stood  in  front  of  the  main 
building.  He  wore  gold-rimmed  spectacles,  his 
face  was  the  type  the  Alsatian  Hansi  loves  to  show 
SI 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

in  his  books.     He  spoke  very  good  French  and 
even  pretended  that  he  did  not  want  to  answer  the 
questions  I  asked  him  in  his  own  language. 
"Show  me  your  wounded,"  I  ordered. 
He  immediately  conducted  me  everywhere,  ex- 
plaining the  nature  of  each  wound.     Some  were 
suffering  and  groaning;  others,  seeing  the  uni- 
form of  a  French  oflScer,  tried  to  raise  themselves 
up  and  salute. 
The  German  major  asked: 

"When  they  come  to  evacuate  the  wounded  to 
Meaux  or  some  other  place,  do  you  suppose  I  shall 
be  allowed  to  accompany  them  and  continue  my 
treatment  .?'* 

"I  don't  know,"  I  replied,  "but  there  is  one 
thing  you  can  be  sure  of.  My  superiors  will  act 
in  accordance  with  the  demands  of  humanity.  Now 
you  follow  me." 

I  led  him  outside  to  the  doorstep.  I  pointed  out 
the  poor  homes  of  the  village,  ruined,  reduced  to 
dust.  Ever3rwhere  were  the  dwellings  of  the  en- 
tire region,  with  their  furniture  lying  in  the  mud 
and  ashes. 

32 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

**Look  at  that,"  I  said  to  him.  "That  is  what 
your  men  have  done." 

The  German  officer  turned  very  pale,  then  very 
red.    He  answered : 

"It's  sad,  but  it  is  war." 

**No,"  I  replied,  "it  isn't  war.  It's  pure  barbar- 
ism and  it's  abominable." 

Some  few  paces  away  from  us  French  Zouaves 
were  sitting  beside  some  wounded  Germans.  In 
their  own  glasses  they  poured  out  a  little  cor- 
dial for  their  prisoners ;  they  gave  them  their  last 
cigarettes.  One  of  them  had  even  taken,  as  if 
he  were  his  brother,  the  head  of  a  wounded  Ger- 
man in  his  left  hand  to  support  it.  With  his 
right  hand,  very  carefully,  he  was  giving  him  a 
drink.  I  pointed  that  out  to  the  German  major, 
saying: 

•^There!  That  is  war — at  least  it's  war  as  we 
understand  it." 

[This  time  he  made  no  answer. 

But  aU  the  German  prisoners  repeated  what  he 
had  said  to  me  as  a  set  phrase.  On  the  whole,  when 
you  have  seen  ten  G^^rman  prisoners   you  have 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

seen  a  thousand;  when  you  have  questioned  one 
German  officer  you  have  questioned  fifty.  The 
characteristic  of  the  race  is  that  they  have  abol- 
ished all  individuality.  You  find  yourself  in  an 
amorphous  mass,  cast  in  a  uniform  mold,  not  in 
the  presence  of  human  beings  who  think  their  own 
thoughts. 

I  often  saw  trains  stop  in  what  is  called  a  gare 
regulatrice,  where  the  prisoners  are  questioned 
and  distributed.  These  trains  bring  in  prisoners 
and  their  officers.  The  commandant  of  the  sta- 
tion, in  accordance  with  his  duty,  has  the  officers 
appear  before  him  so  that  he  can  question  them: 

"Your  name?     Your  rank?" 

The  German  states  his  name  and  rank,  offering 
of  necessity  his  identification  card. 

*'Your  regiment?" 

**Such  and  such  a  regiment.** 

**Your  army  corps?" 

"Such  and  such  an  army  corps.'* 

"Who  is  the  general  in  command?** 

Like  an  automaton  the  officer  replies: 

**Das  sageichrdcht,'*  ("I  can  not  answer  that.*') 
34 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

And  you  know  that  it  would  be  an  easier  matter 
to  make  the  stone  beneath  your  feet  talk  than  one 
of  these  prisoners. 

However,  the  commandant  frowns  slightly, 
glances  over  his  notes,  and  says  coldly : 

"I  know  who  your  general  is.  If  you  belong 
to  such  and  such  an  army  corps,  the  general  in 
command  must  be  General  von  Bissing."  .  .  . 

"I  have  nothing  to  say." 

As  a  general  thing  one  of  the  staff  had  some- 
thing to  say.  The  interpreter,  the  convoy  officer 
or  the  station  master  would  get  a  lot  of  fun  out  of 
reciting  to  the  German  passages  from  von  His- 
sing's famous  and  ferocious  proclamation  ordering 
that  no  quarter  be  given  and  that  the  troops 
should  not  encumber  themselves  with  prisoners. 
Then  he  would  ask : 

"What  would  you  say  if  we  were  to  put  such  a 
principle  into  practice.'^" 

The  German  often  became  very  pale.  He  would 
content  himself  with  a  shrug  of  the  shoulders — 
the  shrug  of  the  brute  who  knows  that  he  is  safe 
among  civilized  men. 

35 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

The  men  I  questioned  were  often  doctors  who 
ranked  as  majors  or  held  some  commission  in  the 
German  medical  corps.  They  were  less  stiff  and 
automaton-like  than  the  officers  and  sergeants 
of  the  line  service.  Their  attitude  varied  in  ac- 
cordance with  the  number  of  stars  they  had  on 
their  epaulette.  If  their  rank  were  inferior  to 
mine,  they  were  exaggeratedly  obsequious,  hold- 
ing their  hands  along  the  crease  in  the  seam  of 
their  trousers  with  their  fingers  close  together — 
at  strict  attention.  If  their  rank  were  superior  to 
mine,  they  were  defiant  and  insolent.  Neverthe- 
less, they  showed  themselves  more  communicative 
than  their  comrades  of  the  line  service.  Most  of 
them  spoke  French — ^well  enough,  though  not  per- 
fectly. All  of  them  had  been  in  Paris,  and  one 
and  all  repeated  this  phrase: 

"We  know  your  beautiful  country  well.  We 
have  been  in  your  beautiful  capital  often.  .  .  .'* 

For  my  part,  I  invariably  spoke  to  them  of  the 
atrocities  their  men  had  perpetrated  in  that  beau- 
tiful country,  or  of  those  they  had  perpetrated  in 
the  country  of  our  beautiful  neighbor.  .  ,  . 
36 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

Rheims,  Ypres,  Louvain,  Andenne,  were  the  names 
that  always  returned  to  my  lips.  I  hoped  each  time 
that  I  would  get  from  those  men  who,  in  spite  of 
everything,  were  men  of  science,  members  of  hu- 
manity's most  generous  profession,  if  not  a  word 
of  contrition  at  least  a  banal  word  of  regret. 
Since  they  had  not  ordered  the  sacrileges  or  the 
massacres,  they  need  not  keep  silent.  But  it  was 
all  in  vain.  They  also  excused,  justified  and  ex- 
plained. .  .  . 

The  explanation  was  simple  and  stereotyped. 
For  the  battered  Cathedral  of  Rheims,  for  the 
total  destruction  of  Clermont,  for  the  systematic 
laying^waste  of  Louvain,  for  the  frightful  com- 
pany of  old  men,  women  and  children  who  w«re 
dragged  off  into  captivity,  three  words  were  the 
justification — the  three  words  of  the  German 
major  at  Vincy: 

''Das  ist  Krkgr  ("It  is  war.'O 

For  the  blackened    ruins   of  Senlis,  for    that 

charming  city  of  Louvain,  razed  to  the  ground  in 

one  night  as  completely  as  if  the  scourge  of  God 

had  passed  through  it ;  for  Andenne,  assassinated 

37 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

in  cold  blood  with  not  one  of  its  houses  being 
granted  mercy  by  the  assassins;  for  Termonde, 
where  General  Sommerfeld,  seated  in  a  chair  in 
the  midst  of  the  Grande  Place,  gave  the  order 
that  it  be  burned  and  replied  to  the  entreaties 
of  the  mayor: 

*'No.     Burn  it  to  the  ground!" 

Five  other  words  sufficed  to  explain  everything: 

"Civilians  fired  on  our  troops." 

Not  one  village  in  flames,  not  one  desecrated 
monument,  not  one  organized  killing,  not  one  tor- 
tured city  that  does  not  fall  under  the  scope  of  one 
or  the  other  of  those  justifications,  "War  is  war," 
or  "Civilians  fired  on  our  troops." 

Doctors,  savants,  officers,  Bavarians,  Saxons, 
and  Prussians  have  adopted  the  double  excuse 
with  a  marvelous  unity:  they  advance  it  in  a 
certain  tone  of  voice.  It  is  firmly  embedded  in 
what  is  left  of  their  consciences  as  firmly  as  the 
iron  cross  is  riveted  on  their  necks. 

Besides,  it  was  all  planned,  wished  for,  arranged 
in  advance.  German  frightfulness  formed  a  part 
of  the  plan  of  campaign.  It  is  enough  to  read  the 
38 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

manual  called  "Kriegesgebrauch  in  Landkriege" 
(Military  Usage  in  Landwarfare)  to  be  very  much 
edified.  Every  German  officer  has  had  this  manual 
in  his  hands  since  the  days  of  peace.  It  comprised 
his  rules  of  warfare.  It  was  a  part  of  his  war 
equipment,  the  same  as  his  field  glasses  and  his 
staff-officer's  card.  And  here  is  what  he  reads 
on  the  very  first  page: 

War  carried  on  energetically  can  not  be  directed 
against  the  inhabitants  and  fortified  places  of  the 
hostile  state  alone;  it  will  endeavor,  it  ought  to 
endeavor  to  destroy  equally  all  the  enemy^s  intel- 
lectual and  material  resources.  Humanitarian 
considerations,  that  is,  consideration  for  the  per- 
sons of  individuals  and  for  the  sake  of  propriety, 
can  have  no  recognition  unless  the  end  and  nature 
of  the  war  allow  it. 

And,  a  little  farther  on,  he  reads  there: 

Profound  study  of  the  history  of  war  will  make 
the  officer  guard  against  exaggerated  humanitar- 
ian concessions,  will  teach  him  that  war  can  not 
take  place  without  certain  harshness,  that  true 
humamty  consists  m  proceedmg  withottt  tender" 
ness. 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 
Farther  along  in  that  book,  he  reads : 

All  the  methods  invented  by  the  technic  of  mod- 
ern warfare,  the  most  perfected  as  well  as  the  most 
dangerous,  those  which  hill  the  greatest  immber 
at  once^  are  permitted.  These  last  are  conducive  to 
the  quickest  end  of  the  war ;  they  are,  if  you  con- 
sider matters  carefully,  the  most  humane  methods. 
.  .  .  Prisoners  may  be  kiUed  in  case  of  necessity 
if  there  is  no  other  means  of  guarding  them  prop- 
erly. .  .  .  The  presence  of  women,  children,  old 
men,  the  sick  and  the  wounded  in  a  beseiged  city 
can  hasten  the  place's  fall ;  in  consequence  it  would 
be  very  foolish  of  the  beseiger  to  renounce  this 
advantage.  .  .  .  They  will  force  the  inhabitants 
to  furnish  information  concerning  their  army,  mil- 
itary resources  and  secrets  of  their  country.  The 
majority  of  writers  in  all  nations  condemn  this 
usage.  It  wiU  be  used  tvotw  the  less — ^very  regret- 
fully— for  military  reasons. 

Finally,  on  the  volume's  last  page,  is  found  this 
extraordinary  maxim: 

"Any  wrong  that  the  war  demands,  however 
great  it  may  be,  is  allowed." 

Therefore  the  horrors  which  the  Germans  per- 
40 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

formed  from  the  war's  very  beginning,  which  pro- 
voked an  expression  of  great  indignation  from  all 
the  civilized  world,  were  not  perpetrated  in  a  mo- 
ment of  orgy  or  madness.  They  have  been  perpe- 
trated coldly,  deliberately,  intentionally. 

Besides,  not  only  the  officers  and  the  common 
soldiers  have  been  taught  to  make  war  in  this 
barbarous  fashion.  It  has  been  taught  to  the  en- 
tire German  people.  This  precept  proves  the 
case.  It  emanates  not  from  a  soldier  but  from  a 
poet,  who  is  not  addressing  the  military  class  but 
the  civilians,  the  women,  the  children,  and  all  Ger- 
many. It  is  the  "Hymn  of  Hate"  by  the  poet 
Heinrich  Vierordt,  which,  before  the  war,  was  re- 
cited in  even  the  German  kindergartens: 

Hate,  Germany !  Slit  the  throats  of  your  mil- 
lions of  enemies.  Raise  a  monument  of  their  smok- 
ing corpses  that  will  rise  to  the  heavens ! 

Germany,  arm  yourself  with  brazen  armor  and 
pierce  with  your  bayonet  the  heart  of  every  enemy. 
Take  no  prisoners!  Strike  them  dumb.  Trans- 
form into  deserts  the  lands  that  lie  near  you  I 

Hate,  Germany!  Victory  will  come  from  your 
anger.  Shatter  their  skulls  with  blows  from  your 
41 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

ax  and  the  butt  of  your  musket.  These  brigands 
are  timid  beasts.  .  .  .  They  are  not  men.  .  .  . 
May  your  fist  perform  the  judgment  of  God! 

It  is  useless  to  say  what  this  spirit  has  brought 
about.  Germany  has  carried  on  the  war  with 
vigor,  has  armed  herself  with  brazen  armor !  She 
has  transformed  neighboring  lands  into  deserts! 
She  has  sUt  throats,  laid  waste  fields,  shattered 
skuUs,  she  has  destroyed  all  that  lay  in  her  path ! 
She  has  tried  to  impress  the  terror  she  holds  salu- 
tary upon  the  souls  of  inoffensive  old  men  and 
women  and  children ! 

This  is  the  first  of  all  the  reasons  why  it  is  nec- 
essary now  to  fight,  and  to  fight  to  the  death; 
because  these  men  will  understand  the  abominable 
nature  of  "frightfulness"  only  when  they  see  that 
**f rightfulness"  does  not  pay;  only  when  they  see 
the  uselessness  of  unchaining  horror  and  of  be- 
ginning another  war.  Let  an  assassin  go  at  lib- 
erty and  he  will  commence  his  killing  all  over 
again;  send  him  to  the  electric  chair  and  he  will 
regret  his  crime. 


4S 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

Just  as  France  and  Paris  were  not  long  in  un- 
derstanding what  war  meant  in  Germany'^s  mind, 
France  and  Paris  were  not  long  in  accounting  for 
the  danger  they  had  passed  through  on  account 
of  the  German  spy  system,  on  account  of  the  for- 
midable web  of  espionage  the  German  agents  had 
woven  around  all  France. 

People  felt  that  this  German  spy  system  was 
there,  speculated  about  it  and  talked  about  it  for 
years  and  years,  but  it  was  only  in  the  first  days 
of  the  war  that  they  really  appreciated  how  dia- 
bolical it  was  and  how  far  it  had  penetrated  into 
the  heart  of  France. 

What  happened  at  Amiens  at  the  beginning  of 
September,  1914,  is  especially  characteristic  of 
this. 

Amiens  was  occupied  twice  by  the  enemy.  To 
use  the  expression  of  a  military  historian,  it 
seemed  as  if  "the  French  and  the  Germans  were 
playing  hide-and-seek  around  the  town."  As  soon 
as  the  blue  caps  of  the  French  appeared  over 
the  horizon,  the  yellow  pointed  helmets  of  the 
Germans  disappeared,  rapidly.  German  occupa- 
43 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

tion  meant  the  same  thing  it  did  everywhere  else 
— exactions,  brutalities,  rape.  Immediately  after 
he  had  entered  the  Prefecture,  the  German  gov- 
ernor levied  a  war  contribution  of  one  million 
francs.  He  also  demanded  that  the  citizens  fur- 
nish his  troops  with  wine,  cigars,  and  tobacco; 
drew  up  a  list  of  hostages ;  and  arrested  all  the 
men  between  the  ages  of  seventeen  and  twenty 
years.  Within  twenty-four  hours  they  were  led 
away  under  guard. 

Nothing  of  all  this  surprised  the  brave  Picard 
city.  Proudly  she  submitted  to  her  fate.  But 
one  thing  moved  her,  or  rather  angered  her,  and 
that  was  the  surety  and  speed  with  which  the 
German  authorities  went  directly  to  all  the  places 
they  should  occupy.  They  did  not  hesitate  an 
instant  about  the  street  to  foUow  or  the  door  at 
which  to  knock.  The  arrest  of  the  fifteen  hun- 
dred young  hostages  occurred  with  an  unheard-of 
rapidity.  It  seemed  as  if  an  invisible  but  ex- 
ceedingly clever  hand  guided  each  step,  regulated 
each  movement  of  the  invaders.    Who  could  it  be 

44 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

who  directed,  advised  and  commanded  the  Ger- 
mans from  behind  a  veil? 

Doubtless  the  mystery  would  never  have  been 
solved  if,  during  the  second  occupation,  the  citi- 
zens had  not  been  warned  that  the  next  day  they 
would  have  to  keep  their  shades  down  and  close 
all  shutters  because  His  Imperial  Highness,  Prince 
Eitel  Friedrich,  the  Kaiser's  son,  would  then  make 
a  formal  entry  into  the  capital  of  Picardy.  The 
shutters  were  closed;  automatically  the  streets 
were  emptied. 

Into  a  deserted  city,  to  the  sound  of  trumpet 
and  drum,  preceded  by  a  staff  gleaming  with  gold 
braid  and  mounted  on  spirited  steeds,  the  German 
army  entered  in  state.  All  the  shades  were  drawn 
in  the  city.  However,  behind  some  of  them  drawn 
faces  peered  forth  in  sorrow  or  in  anger.  In  a 
house  on  the  principal  street  was  a  lady  whose 
husband  was  at  the  front.  Her  father,  an  aged 
general  who  had  fought  bravely  in  the  war  of 
1870,  was  with  her.  Through  the  drawn  shades 
of  her  home  she  was  watching  the  hated  scene, 
45 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

And  her  glorious  old  father,  however  indignant  he 
felt,  was  watching  by  her  side. 

When  the  parade  was  passing  by,  he  made  a 
sudden  gesture  and  said : 

**Look  at  that  man  on  the  horse,  there,  now!" 

The  man  in  question  seemed  to  have  a  horse  that 
pranced  a  little  more  than  the  others.  He  rolled 
around  in  his  saddle  a  little  more  than  the  others. 
And  the  two  onlookers  had  no  trouble  in  recogniz- 
ing this  aide-de-camp  of  Prince  Eitel's  as  one  of 
the  former  directors  of  a  language  school  that 
had  had  a  branch  at  Amiens ! 

There  is  a  sequel  to  the  story  .  .  ,  for  on  the 
afternoon  of  that  unhappy  day  Madame  X  and 
ten  other  society  ladies  of  Amiens  at  different 
times  heard  a  ring  at  their  doors  and  saw  that 
same  individual,  in  full  regalia,  booted  and 
spurred,  enter  their  drawing  rooms.  He  came  to 
call  on  them,  to  pay  his  respects,  as  if  it  were  the 
most  natural  thing  in  the  world  that  he  should 
be  there  in  that  costume.  They  all  had  to  re- 
strain the  feeling  of  disgust  and  anger  this  spy 
aroused  in  their  breasts.  It  was  for  the  sake  of 
46 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

the  safety  of  their  homes,  for  the  lives  that  were 
dear  to  them,  that  they  did  this.  And  he,  entirely 
unconscious  in  his  vileness,  was  suave  and  polite, 
played  the  man  about  town,  recalled  one  thing 
or  another,  mentioned  dances   and  parties.  .  .  . 

So  we  once  more  find  justification  for  the  fa- 
mous definition  of  German  contained  in  Schopen- 
hauer's famous  phrase:  "The  German  is  remark- 
able for  the  absolute  lack  of  that  feeling  which  the 
Latins  call  *verecundia' — sense  of  shame." 

The  essence  of  this  feeling  which  is  found  among 
the  most  savage  peoples  is  entirely  lacking  in  the 
Teutonic  race.  And  once  more  we  find  an  abomin- 
able ambush  placed  for  French  culture,  good  faith 
and  generosity. 

This  is  not  an  isolated  incident.  When  the 
whole  truth  is  known,  there  will  be  even  more  sur- 
prised indignation  felt  than  there  is  at  present. 
Inquiries  will  have  to  be  made.  It  will  be  necessary 
to  know  why  the  enemy,  in  certain  places,  has 
rushed  in  as  if  he  came  out  of  a  trap  door.  It 
will  be  necessary  to  know  why,  in  certain  rav- 
aged districts,  some  houses  have  been  entirely  de- 
47 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

stroyed  and  others  carefully  spared.  It  will 
be  necessary  to  know  why  tennis  courts  have 
been  put  in  certain  places  and  why  certain  masses 
of  rhododendrons  have  been  planted  in  certain 
parks.  .  .  . 

For  we  know  that  the  tennis  courts  have  helped 
the  Germans  carry  out  their  schemes,  and  that  the 
flower  beds  have  had  a  place  in  the  machinery  of 
war  they  were  developing,  which  they  kept  alive 
until  they  were  at  our  gates.  A  tennis  match 
seems  a  mere  nothing — something  very  innocent 
in  the  way  of  pleasure,  far  from  being  war-like. 
And  then,  one  fine  day  the  discovery  is  made  that 
the  tennis  court  has  a  foundation  of  reinforced 
concrete  twenty  centimeters  thick,  fit  to  support  a 
house  six  stories  high  and,  consequently,  a  heavy 
gun! 

A  clump  of  rhododendrons  is  very  lovely,  some- 
thing very  gracious,  charming,  most  poetic.  And 
one  day  the  discovery  is  made  that  the  clump  con- 
ceals a  platform  set  in  concrete  on  which  an  en- 
tire battery  can  be  aligned. 

All  that  will  have  to  be  investigated.  All  that 
48 


WHY  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

will  have  to  he  stopped.  .  .  .  And  it  makes  an- 
other reason  why  it  is  necessary  to  fight  today,  to 
fight  to  the  death.  For  these  Germans  will  under- 
stand the  inanity  of  their  Machiavellian  schem- 
ing and  of  their  spy  system  only  when  they  shall 
see  these  methods  fall  to  pieces,  when  they  shall 
see  their  system  fail  absolutely. 

In  conclusion  we  may  say  that  France  fights 
for  two  reasons.  The  first  reason  is  because  on 
the  third  of  August  at  a  quarter  before  seven 
o'clock  war  was  declared  on  her;  she  was  forced 
to  fight;  her  territory  was  invaded,  her  cities 
burned  to  the  ground;  her  fields  ravaged;  her 
citizens  massacred.  The  second  reason  is  because 
she  does  not  want  to  have  to  fight  in  the  future; 
she  does  not  wish  this  horror  to  be  reproduced  a 
second  time ;  she  wishes,  in  the  immortal  words  of 
Washington,  "that  plague  of  mankind,  war,  ban- 
ished off  the  earth." 

To  accomplish  this  the  engine  that  makes  war 
must  be  destroyed.  The  engine  that  makes  war 
is  "made  in  Germany."  War  is  the  national  in- 
dustry of  the  Germans,  it  has  been  developed  and 
49 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

made  perfect  in  Germany,  it  is  dear  to  all  Ger- 
man hearts.  They  are  proud  of  it  and  have  faith 
in  its  power.  The  machine  must  not  only  be 
stopped ;  it  must  be  broken  and  destroyed,  thrown 
out  as  scrap  iron  to  prevent  the  pieces  from  being 
reassembled,  readjusted  and  put  in  running  order 
once  again. 

That  is  why  France  is  fighting,  why  the  whole 
world  ought  to  fight  to  the  end,  to  death  or  until 
victory  crowns  its  efforts. 


n 

HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

TWO  words,  courage  and  tenacity,  will  serve 
the  future  historian  in  his  description  of 
how  France  fought,  when  the  time  shall 
have  come  for  telling  the  entire  story  of  the  world 
war. 

No  one  has  ever  doubted  French  courage 
throughout  all  the  centuries  of  her  tormented  his- 
tory; but  skeptical  remarks  have  been  made  in 
times  past  of  the  tenacity  of  the  French  people. 
Ten  epigrams  do  not  describe  this  war;  nor  do 
three.  But  one  alone  serves  this  purpose — know 
how  to  endure.  No  more  thoughtful  words  have 
ever  been  spoken  than  those  of  the  Japanese, 
Marshall  Nogi :  "Victory  is  won  by  the  nation  that 
can  suffer  a  quarter  of  an  hour  longer  than  its 
opponent.'* 

51 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

During  the  four  years  of  war,  France  has 
proven  that  she  knew  how  to  suffer  and  was  able 
to  suffer  a  quarter  of  an  hour  longer  than  her 
enemies. 

They  knew  how  to  suffer,  those  soldiers  of 
General  Maunoury's  army  in  the  Battle  of  the 
Mame.  And  they  turned  the  tide  of  battle  in 
favor  of  French  arms.  They  marched,  fought 
and  died  for  five  days  and  five  nights,  in  the  pass- 
ing of  which  some  battalions  marched  forty-two 
kilometers  and  did  not  sleep  for  more  than  two 
hours  at  a  time.  The  mobility  of  the  fighting 
units  was  such  that  the  commissary  department 
was  absolutely  unable  to  supply  them  with  rations. 
For  three  days  many  of  them  had  no  bread,  no 
meat,  nothing  at  aU!  They  subsisted  on  crusts 
they  had  with  them,  or  on  the  food  they  were  able, 
by  the  fortunes  of  battle,  to  pick  up  in  the  vil- 
lages where  they  happened  to  be.  In  spite  of  all 
this,  whenever  the  order  was  given  to  charge, 
they  charged  the  enemy  with  a  sort  of  inspired 
madness. 

"The  fight  has  been  a  hard  one,"  Marshall  Jof- 
62 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

fre  wrote  in  an  order  of  the  day  that  will  be  fa- 
mous throughout  eternity.  "The  casualties,  the 
number  of  men  worn  out  by  the  exhaustion  due  to 
lack  of  sleep — and  sometimes  of  food — passed  all 
imagining.  .  .  .  Comrades,  the  commander  in 
chief  has  asked  you  to  do  more  than  your  duty, 
and  you  have  responded  to  this  request  by  accom- 
plishing the  impossible."  That  is  the  finest  word 
of  praise  that  has  been  given  fighting  men  since 
the  world  began. 

They  knew  how  to  suffer,  those  other  soldiers 
of  the  Battle  of  the  Mame  who  were  a  part  of 
General  Foch's  army  at  Fere-Champenoise.  Five 
times  they  attacked  the  Chateau  de  Mondement, 
and  five  times  they  were  driven  back.  Their  of- 
ficers were  consulting  as  to  the  best  thing  to  do; 
and  the  men  surrounded  the  officers,  begging  them 
with  tears  in  their  eyes  to  lead  them  to  the  as- 
sault for  the  sixth  time.  For  the  sixth  time  the 
attack  was  sounded,  and  at  the  sixth  assault  Cha- 
teau de  Mondement  fell. 

That  officer  at  Verdun  knew  how  to  sufi^er.    He 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

will  remain  a  figure  for  the  legends  of  the  fu- 
ture for,  running  to  transmit  an  order,  he  re- 
ceived a  bullet  in  the  eyes  which  shattered  his 
optic  nerve.  He  was  completely  blinded.  Never- 
theless, he  continued  to  advance,  trying  to  grope 
his  way  through  the  night  that  had  fallen  upon 
him.  He  encountered  something  lying  on  the 
ground — a  something  that  was  a  man  just  as  bad- 
ly wounded.  The  blind  man  besought  him  for 
help. 

"How  can  I  help  you,"  said  the  wounded  man, 
**a  shell  has  broken  both  my  legs." 

"What  difference  does  that  make,"  shouted  the 
blinded  man,  "I  am  going  to  carry  you  on  my 
back.  My  legs  will  be  yours,  and  your  eyes  will 
be  mine." 

And,  one  supporting  the  other,  the  blinded  man 
and  the  lamed  man  carried  on ! 

That  officer  knew  how  to  suffer  whom  one  of 

my  brothers  met  on  the  battle  field  of  Lorraine. 

An  artillery  officer,  his  arm  was  shattered,  a  few 

bits  of  flesh  barely  holding  it  fast  to  his  shoulder. 

54 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

My  brother,  when  he  saw  the  man  painfully  drag^ 
ging  himself  along,  asked  him  whether  or  not 
he  needed  help. 

"I  don't  need  help,"  replied  the  woimded  man, 
"but  my  battery  down  there  does.  It  is  retreat- 
ing." 

"If  it  is  retreating,  it  can't  be  helped  and  it  is 
a  waste  of  time  for  me  to  get  it  ammunition.  .  .  ." 

"No,"  begged  the  lieutenant,  "get  the  muni- 
tions. We  Colonials  fight  until  the  last  man 
falls.  .  .  ." 

He  offered  to  guide  my  brother,  mounted  beside 
him  on  the  artiUery  caisson,  and  stayed  there  all 
day.  For  after  he  had  supplied  his  own  battery, 
it  was  the  battery  next  it,  and  then  the  one  next 
to  that,  which  he  wanted  to  supply.  .  .  .  Finally, 
in  the  evening,  at  nightfall,  they  came  to  take  him 
off  in  the  ambulance.  The  major  looked  at  his 
shattered  arm,  examined  his  frightful  wound,  and 
muttered : 

•'You  are  in  a  bad  way.  Couldn't  you  have  come 
here  sooner?" 

56 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

The  Keutenant  replied  humbly: 

"Pardon  me,  I  lost  a  lot  of  time  on  the  way." 

Those  men  I  saw  for  months  fighting  and  dying 
to  the  south  of  Verdun,  at  the  Butte  des  Eparges, 
knew  how  to  suffer. 

The  Butte  des  Eparges  dominates  the  great 
plain  of  the  Woevre,  and  from  the  very  beginning 
it  has  been  the  theater  of  a  frightful  and  long 
drawn  out  battle  of  the  kind  one  seldom  sees  in 
this  war.  The  Germans  have  been  entrenched  on 
the  left  side  of  the  Butte,  the  French  on  the  right. 
And  day  and  night  for  four  years  there  has  been 
an  incessant  battle  over  its  summit  of  grenades, 
bombs  and  shells;  a  terrible  hand-to-hand  fight 
in  which  neither  one  of  the  contestants  yields  an 
inch  of  ground.  A  brook  of  blood  runs  its  in- 
terrupted course  on  each  slope.  On  the  south 
slope  it  is  red  with  German  blood;  with  French 
blood  on  the  north. 

The  two  slopes  of  the  Butte  have  been  so  raked 
by  firing  that  they  have  not  a  single  tree,  bush,  or 
blades  of  grass  on  them;  they  stand  out  sinister 

56 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

and  frightful  in  their  nakedness,  seeming  to  cry 
out  to  the  men  of  the  plain: 

"See,  all  of  you,  the  scourge  of  God  has  passed 
over  this  place." 

They  are  dented,  furrowed  and  blown  into  cre- 
vasses by  the  explosions  of  mines ;  they  are  sown 
over  with  the  enormous  funnels  in  which  the  fight- 
ers take  shelter;  they  are  covered  with  an  inces- 
sant smoke  from  the  projectiles  that  plow  them 
up. 

As  for  the  summit,  it  is  a  no  man's  land,  that 
belongs  to  the  dead  men  whose  bodies  cover  it. 
The  summit  stopped  being  a  battle  field  to  become 
a  chamel  house.  The  number  of  men  who  have 
fallen  there  will  never  be  known.  The  most  fan- 
tastic figures  come  from  the  lips  of  those  who 
come  down  .  .  .  5,000,  8,000,  10,000  ...  it  will 
never  be  known.  But  what  is  known  is  that  the 
dead  are  always  there.  They  form  a  parapet 
above  which  the  living  fight  on.  These  dead  rot 
in  the  sunshine  and  in  the  rain.  In  accordance 
with  the  wind's  being  from  the  east  or  the  west, 
the  frightful  odor  of  all  this  rotten  flesh  strikes 

57 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

the  Germans  or  the  French.  They  lie  there,  an 
indistinguishable  mass  on  the  ground,  and  the 
men  are  unlucky  who  watch  by  night  in  the  listen- 
ing posts  or  the  trenches.  They  think  they  are 
stumbling  against  a  stone,  and  it  is  a  skull  their 
feet  are  touching;  they  think  they  are  picking  up 
the  branch  of  a  tree,  and  they  have  hold  of  the 
arm  of  a  corpse. 

However,  in  the  shadow  of  this  human  chamel 
house,  at  the  edge  of  this  bloody  sewer,  some  little 
French  soldiers  come  and  go,  eat  and  sleep  for 
months  at  a  time.  The  dreadfulness  of  the  sights, 
the  stench  in  the  air,  the  tragic  presence  of  death 
has  not  gripped  their  souls,  their  courage  or  their 
nerves.  They  are  no  less  confident  and  merry  than 
the  others  and,  in  the  evening,  when  the  setting 
sun  adds  the  purple  of  its  shadows  to  the  red  of 
all  the  blood  that  has  been  shed  on  the  Butte,  they 
sing  from  the  depths  of  their  charnel  house  sweet 
love  songs.  .  .  .  This  is  the  most  regally  beauti- 
ful sight  I  have  seen  in  this  war;  it  is  the  most 
splendidly  moving  example  I  know  of  what  per- 
sonal sacrifice  for  one's  country's  sake  can  do. 

58 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

One  day,  in  a  rest  village  in  the  neighborhood, 
I  met  a  soldier  from  one  of  the  battalions  which 
was  encamped  in  the  chamel  house.  He  was  a 
boy  twenty  years  old,  who  hurried  along  with  a 
flower  in  his  buttonhole,  whistling  a  tune.  .  ,  . 
He  was  so  joyful  that  I  asked  him: 

"You  seem  as  happy  as  you  can  be." 

"I  have  leave,  Sir,"  he  answered,  "and  in  a 
week  I  shall  go  to  the  country  to  see  my  mother. 
But,  for  the  present,  I  have  to  go  and  take  the 
trench  at  Eparges.  ..." 

As  he  mentioned  the  name  of  the  accursed 
Butte,  I  could  not  repress  a  movement.  He  saw 
it  and  said: 

"Sir,  I  am  glad  to  go  there." 

And  he  told  me  his  name  and  the  number  of  his 
company.     Then  he  hurried  away. 

It  chanced  that  precisely  one  week  later  I  met 
one  of  his  officers.  I  asked  him  about  the  merry 
fellow. 

"That  man.'*  He  was  killed  the  day  before  yes- 
terday at  Eparges." 

And  my  comrade  added  in  a  low  voice : 
59 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

"He  was  shot  down  at  my  side,  struck  with  a 
bullet  square  in  the  chest.  The  death  agony  set 
in  at  once.  As  I  was  trying  to  do  something 
for  him,  passing  my  hand  gently  across  his  fore- 
head, I  said  to  him: 

"Courage,  my  boy,  courage." 

He  murmured  the  reply: 

"Oh,  Fm  glad  to  die." 

Glad  .  .  .  the  same  phrase,  the  same  words 
I  had  heard  a  week  ago,  which  can  be  heard  every- 
where on  the  French  front — and  they  are  glad 
to  go  into  all  the  trenches  and  into  aU.  the  chamel 
houses,  and  it  is  with  a  happy  heart  that  they  rest 
in  peace. 


But  France  has  not  only  fought  with  all  her 
courage,  with  all  her  soul,  with  all  her  tenacity. 
She  has  fought  with  all  her  living  strength,  with 
her  men,  her  women,  even  her  children. 

What  can  I  say  which  has  not  already  been  said 
about  the  men?  When  I  think  of  my  own  men, 
when  I  think  of  all  the  men  floundering  and  fight- 
ing in  this  mud,  I  can  find  no  other  means  of 
60 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

expression  than  the  words  that  have  already 
served  the  Commander  in  Chief  of  the  French 
Army,  General  Petain,  on  the  evening  of  his  great 
victory  at  the  Chemin  des  Dames.  In  receiving 
the  American  newspapermen,  he  said  to  them: 

"Do  not  speak  of  us,  the  generals  and  the  of- 
ficers. Speak  only  of  the  men.  We  have  done 
nothing ;  the  men  have  done  everything.  Our  men 
are  wonderful;  we,  their  leaders,  can  only  kneel 
at  their  feet." 

The  women  have  been  no  less  wonderful.  And 
I  want  to  write  a  few  words  about  them. 

The  women  who  are  at  the  front  have  fought 
like  the  men.  Can  you  imagine  a  more  beautiful 
deed  of  arms  than  that  of  a  young  girl,  twenty 
years  old,  named  Marcelle  Semer,  whose  heroic 
story  a  French  Cabinet  Minister,  M.  Klotz,  told 
recently  at  one  of  the  Matinees  Nationales  at  the 
Sorbonne. 

In  August,  1914,  there  lived  at  Eclusier,  near 
Frise,  a  young  girl  with  gray  eyes  and  blonde  hair 
named  Marcelle  Semer.  She  was  twenty  years  old 
61 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

at  the  time  and  kept  accounts  in  addition  to  over- 
seeing the  work  of  a  factory.  At  the  time  of  the 
August  invasion,  after  the  Battle  of  Charleroi,  the 
French  tried  to  halt  the  Germans  at  the  Somme. 
Not  being  in  sufficient  force,  they  retreated,  cross- 
ing the  river  and  the  canal.  The  enemy  imme- 
diately pursued.  Marcelle  Semer,  who  was  fol- 
lowing the  French  troops,  had  the  presence  of 
mind,  after  the  last  soldier  had  crossed  the  Somme 
Canal,  to  open  the  drawbridge  in  order  to  pre- 
vent the  Germans  from  crossing  it,  and  to  hurl 
the  key  to  the  bridge  into  the  canal  in  order  that 
they  might  not  take  it  from  her  when  they  came 
up.  An  entire  enemy  army  corps  was  thus  de- 
tained for  twenty-four  hours  by  this  young  girl's 
presence  of  mind ;  and  it  was  only  on  the  following 
day  that  the  enemy,  having  found  some  boats  on 
the  Somme,  made  a  bridge  of  them  and  passed  over 
the  canal.  But  the  French  soldiers  were  already 
far  away. 

The  Germans  were  masters  of  the  neighborhood 
for  some  days.  They  seized  the  inhabitants  as 
hostages  and  shut  them  up  in  a  cave.     Marcelle 

62 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

Semer  secretly  carried  them  food.  She  also  car- 
ried sustenance  to  other  inhabitants  who  had  hid- 
den in  the  woods  or  in  cellars.  She  succored  and 
concealed  the  soldiers  whom  wounds  or  fatigue 
had  prevented  from  following  the  main  body  of 
troops.  She  contrived  that  sixteen  of  them, 
dressed  as  civilians,  escaped.  Then  she  was  ap- 
prehended by  the  Germans,  arrested  and  led  into 
the  presence  of  a  court-martial.  The  judgment 
was  summary,  and  after  a  quarter  of  an  hour's 
questioning  Marcelle  Semer  was  condemned  to 
death. 

"Do  you  admit,"  asked  the  presiding  officer, 
"that  you  helped  French  soldiers  to  escape?" 

**I  certainly  do,"  she  replied.  "I  managed  it 
so  that  sixteen  of  them  escaped,  and  they  are  be- 
yond your  reach.  Now  you  can  do  what  you  want 
to  me.  I  am  an  orphan.  I  have  only  one  mother 
— ^France.  She  does  not  disturb  me  when  I'm 
dying." 

This  was  one  time  when  God  intervened. 
Marcelle  did  not  die.  Brought  to  the  place  of 
execution,  at  the  very  moment  when  they  were 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

about  to  shoot,  the  French  reentered  the  village 
and,  by  a  miracle,  she  escaped  her  executioners. 
Today  she  wears  the  Croix  de  Guerre  and  the 
medal  of  the  Legion  of  Honor. 


T!hey  were  Frenchwomen  and  fighters^  these 
women  whose  names  and  deeds  are  to  be  found  in 
the  columns  of  the  "Journal  Officiel."  Read,  for 
example,  this  citation  concerning  Madame  Mach- 
erez.  President  of  the  Association  des  Dames 
Fran9aises  de  Soissons: 

She  willingly  assumed  the  responsibility  and  the 
danger  of  representing  the  city  before  the  enemy, 
and  defended  or  managed  the  interests  of  the  pop'- 
ulation  in  the  absence  of  the  mayor  and  the  ma- 
jority of  the  members  of  the  town  council.  In 
spite  of  an  intense  bombardment  which  partially 
ruined  the  city,  she  took  the  most  effective  means 
possible  to  maintain  calm  in  the  city  and  to  pro- 
tect the  lives  of  the  inhabitants. 

In  this  department,  a  lay  instructress.  Mile. 
Cheron,  merited  a  citation  which  does  not  contain 
the  least  over-praise: 

She  evidenced  the  greatest  energy  in  difficult 
64 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

circumstances.  Charged  with  the  duties  of  Secre- 
tary to  the  Mayor,  and  alone  at  the  time  of  the 
arrival  of  the  Germans,  she  was  not  disconcerted 
by  their  threats,  and  kept  her  head  in  the  face 
of  their  demands  with  remarkable  calm  and  de- 
cision. When  our  troops  returned,  she  assumed 
responsibility  for  the  service  and  feeding  of  the 
cantonment.  She  personally  took  the  steps  nec- 
essary for  the  identification  and  burial  of  the  dead. 
Finally,  she  was  able  to  prevent  panic  at  the  time 
of  the  bombardment  by  the  force  of  her  example 
and  her  encouragement  of  the  populace. 

Those  three  nuns  were  also  Frenchwomen  and 
fighters  of  whom  the  "Journal  Officiel"  in  the  gen- 
eral order  spoke  as  follows: 

Mile.  Rosnet,  Marie,  sister  of  the  order  of  St. 
Vincent  de  Paul,  Mother  Superior  of  the  Hospice 
at  Clermont-en-Argonne,  remained  alone  in  the 
village  and  showed  during  the  German  occupation 
an  energy  and  coolness  beyond  aU  praise.  Having 
received  a  promise  from  the  enemy  that  they 
would  respect  the  town  in  exchange  for  the  care 
the  sisters  gave  their  wounded,  she  protested  to 
the  German  commander  against  the  burning  of  the 
town  with  the  observation  that  "the  word  of  a 
Grerman  officer  is  not  worth  that  of  a  French  of- 
65 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

ficer."  Thus  she  obtained  the  help  of  a  company 
of  sappers  who  fought  the  flames.  She  gave  the 
most  devoted  care  to  the  wounded,  German  as  well 
as  French.  ... 

Mile.  Constance,  Mother  Superior  of  the  Hos- 
pice at  Badonvillers,  during  the  three  successive 
German  occupations  in  1914,  assisted  the  sisters 
and  remained  bravely  at  her  post  night  and  day, 
in  spite  of  aU  danger,  and  was  busy  everywhere 
with  a  devotion  truly  admirable.  .  .  . 

MUe.  Brasseur,  Sister  Etienne,  Mother  Superior 
of  the  Sisters  of  St.  Vincent  de  Paul  in  the  Hos- 
pital at  Compiegne,  from  the  war's  beginning  at 
the  head  of  a  staif  whose  tireless  devotion  has  de- 
served all  praise,  has  given  the  most  intelligent 
and  enlightened  care  to  numerous  wounded  men. 
During  the  time  of  the  German  occupation,  her 
coolness  and  energetic  attitude  assured  the  safety 
of  the  establishment  she  directed.  Her  brave  ini- 
tiative allowed  several  French  soldiers  to  escape 
from  captivity. 

The  modest  postmistress  and  telegraph  operator 
was  a  Frenchwoman  and  a  fighter,  who,  in  the  lit- 
tle village  of  Houpelines,  in  the  north  of  the  coun- 
66 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

try,  deserved  this  citation  in  the  orders  of  the  day, 
of  which  thousands  of  soldiers  would  be  proud: 

Refusing  to  obey  the  order  that  was  given  her 
to  leave  her  post,  she  remained  in  spite  of  the  dan- 
ger. On  the  first  of  October  the  Germans  entered 
her  office,  smashed  her  apparatus  and  threatened 
her  with  death.  Mile.  Deletete,  who  had  put  her 
valuables  and  accounts  in  safe-keeping,  gave  evi- 
dence of  the  greatest  calmness.  From  the  seven- 
teenth on  she  endured  the  bombardment.  Her  of- 
fice having  been  damaged  severely  by  the  enemy's 
fire,  she  took  refuge  in  the  civil  hospice,  where  four 
persons  were  kiUed  at  her  side.  She  resimied  her 
duties  on  the  twenty-third,  since  which  date  she 
has  continued  to  perform  them  in  the  face  of  fre- 
quent bombardments  which  have  found  many  vic- 
tims. 

The  women  behind  the  lines  have  been  worthy  of 
their  sisters  at  the  front. 

In  the  forges,  the  foundries,  the  factories  and 
the  munition  plants  they  have  not  feared  to  don 
the  blouse  of  the  workingman,  and  on  this  blouse 
they  wear  as  insignia  a  large  grenade  like  that 
on  the  brassard  of  the  mobilized  men.  Note  these 
figures.  On  the  first  of  February,  1916,  the  civil 
67 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

establishments  of  war,  the  munition  plants,  and 
the  Marine  workshops  employed  127,792  women. 
The  number  has  increased,  and  on  the  first  of 
March,  1917,  they  numbered  375,582  women.  On 
the  first  of  January,  1918,  the  women  working  in 
the  factories  manufacturing  war  material  amount- 
ed to  475,000;  that  is  to  say,  in  round  numbers, 
a  half  million. 

Others,  in  the  hospitals,  ambulance  and  dispen- 
saries have  devoted  themselves  to  the  wounded,  the 
mutilated,  the  sick  and  the  suffering,  to  the  sacri- 
fice of  their  health,  their  youth,  and  sometimes 
their  life  itself.  Here  again  the  figures  are  elo- 
quent— they  speak  for  themselves.  Three  great 
societies,  constituting  the  French  Red  Cross,  have 
carried  on  this  work  of  charity  and  devotion — ^the 
Societe  de  Secours  aux  Blesses  Militaires,  the 
Union  des  Dames  de  France,  and  The  Association 
des  Dames  Fran9aises.  At  the  war's  outbreak  the 
Societe  de  Secours  aux  Blesses  had  375  hospitals 
with  17,939  beds ;  today  it  has  796  hospitals  with 
67,000  beds  and  15,510  graduated  nurses,  three 
thousand    of   whom    are    employed    in    military 

68 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

hospitals.  On  the  thirty-first  of  December,  1916, 
the  Union  des  Dames  de  France  had  363  hospi- 
tals with  30,000  beds  and  more  than  20,000  grad- 
uate or  volunteer  nurses.  From  August,  1914,  to 
March,  1917,  the  Association  des  Dames  Fran- 
9aises  had  raised  the  number  of  its  hospitals  from 
100  to  350,  and  from  5,000  to  18,000  the  number 
of  its  beds;  the  number  of  its  graduate  nurses 
from  5,000  to  7,000. 

On  the  thirty-first  of  December,  1916,  the  three 
societies  counted  about  42,000,000  days  of  hospi- 
tal work,  25,000,000  for  the  Societe  de  Secours 
aux  Blesses  alone.  From  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  this  society  has  expended  for  equipment  the 
sum  of  38,700,000  francs. 

Aside  from  these  there  are  other  figures  which 
show  the  material  effort  of  the  Frenchwomen 
which  I  can  not  pass  over  in  silence.  They  show 
the  civic  devotion  of  which  they  are  capable.  The 
Societe  de  Secours  aux  Blesses  has  been  granted 
one  cross  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  94  Croix  de 
Guerre,  119  Medailles  d'Honneur  des  epidemies. 
The  Association  des  Dames  Fran9aises  has  won 
69 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

17  Croix  de  Guerre  and  80  Medailles  des  epidemies. 
The  Union  des  Femmes  de  France  has  won  39 
Croix  de  Guerre.  And  last  comes  the  glorious 
list  of  martyrs  of  the  societies:  110  nurses  have 
died  in  the  devoted  performance  of  their  duties. 

The  heroism  of  these  valiant  women,  many  of 
whom  remained  in  the  occupied  territories,  will  be 
the  eternal  pride  of  France.  Madame  Perouse, 
President  of  the  Union  des  Femmes  de  France 
wrote  to  M.  Louis  Barthou  teUing  him  the  number 
of  women  who  had  risked  their  liberty,  their  life, 
their  honor  even,  to  protect  in  the  face  of  the 
ferocious  enemy  the  sacred  rights  of  the  French 
wounded.  It  is  fitting  to  add  that,  if  they  have 
taken  care  of  the  German  wounded  as  well  as  the 
French  wounded,  they  can  always  recall  the  reply 
of  a  devoted  teacher  of  the  Marne  district,  Mile. 
Fouriaux,  to  a  German  major: 

"Sir,  we  have  only  done  our  duty  as  nurses, 
never  forgetting  that  we  are  Frenchwomen." 

Mile.  Joulin,  a  nurse  at  Douai,  did  not  forget 
her  duty  as  a  Frenchwoman.  She  was  held  a  pris- 
oner by  the  Germans  for  a  year  in  the  camp  at 
70 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

Holzminden,  in  which  she  took  the  place  of  the 
mother  of  five  children  who  had  been  put  down  on 
the  list  of  hostages  drawn  up  by  the  German  bar- 
barians. 

And  if  you  would  know  where  these  heroic 
women  have  poured  out  their  courage,  their  cool- 
ness and  their  physical  resistance,  which  they  have 
put  in  the  service  of  their  country  and  of  human- 
ity, you  have  but  to  listen  to  the  declaration  of  one 
of  them,  Mile.  Canton-Baccara,  who  has  been  made 
a  Chevalier  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  for  having 
shown  bravery  and  exceptional  devotion  in  the 
face  of  the  greatest  danger : 

"The  wounded  soldier  who  suffers,"  said  Mile. 
Canton-Baccara,  "the  soldier  who  is  complaining 
or  the  peasant  who  is  weeping  for  the  farm  that 
has  been  pillaged,  a  woman's  smile  ought  to  con- 
sole and  her  voice  ought,  under  all  circumstances, 
to  be  ready  to  recall  to  him  that  above  these 
sufferings  and  troubles,  above  the  paltry  strug- 
gles of  interest  and  ambition,  there  is,  above  all 
this,  France,  our  France,  which  matters  before 
all  else." 

71 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

Still  other  women,  who  were  neither  in  the  hos- 
pitals, at  the  front,  nor  in  the  factories,  have  been 
admirable  fighters.  They  fought,  according  to 
Mile.  Canton-Baccara's  words,  with  their  heart 
and  with  their  smile.  They  fought  by  the  example 
of  abnegation  they  gave,  by  the  moral  force  with 
which  they  inspired  the  men  in  the  trenches. 

Madame  de  Castelnau  is  a  glorious  figure,  she, 
the  wife  of  the  General  who  saved  Nancy  and 
stopped  the  rush  of  the  barbarians  on  the  Grand 
Couronne!  .  .  .  Madame  de  Castelnau  had,  be- 
fore the  war  broke  out,  four  sons.  Three  fell  on 
the  battle  field.  The  fourth  is  actually  still  a  pris- 
oner in  the  hands  of  the  Germans.  On  the  lips  of 
their  father  there  is  never  the  slightest  word  of 
complaint;  on  the  lips  of  the  mother  there  are 
these  admirable  words,  which  the  children  in  the 
schools  will  repeat  later  on.  .  .  .  Madame  de 
Castelnau  was  in  a  little  village  when  her  third  son 
was  killed.  The  cure  of  the  village  had  the  pitiful 
task  of  telling  the  already  mourning  mother  of 
this  new  blow  that  had  struck  her.  The  cure 
found  Madame  de  Castelnau,  and,  in  the  presence 
7« 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

of  her  great  sorrow,  he  hesitated  and  was  over- 
come with  embarrassment: 

"Madame,"  he  said,  "I  come  to  bring  you  an- 
other blow.  But  know  well  that  all  the  mothers 
of  France  weep  for  you." 

Madame  de  Castelnau  knew  the  truth  at  once. 
She  interrupted  the  priest  and,  looking  him 
straight  in  the  eye,  replied: 

"Yes,  I  know  what  you  are  going  to  tell  me. 
.  .  .  God's  will  be  done.  But  the  mothers  of 
France  would  be  wrong  in  weeping  for  me.  Let 
them  envy  me." 

Those  are  the  words  of  a  Frenchwoman  of  noble 
descent.  But  you  can  place  on  the  same  high  level 
the  words  of  an  old  woman,  a  humble  soul,  whom 
the  gendarmes  found  one  night  crouched  on  a 
grave  that  was  still  fresh.  It  was  up  near  Ver- 
dun.    She  told  the  gendarmes : 

"I  come  from  La  Rochelle.  Five  of  my  sons 
have  already  fallen  in  the  war.  I  have  come  here 
to  see  where  the  sixth  is  buried — the  sixth — my 
last  son." 

Moved  by  the  tragic  grandeur  of  the  sight,  the 
78 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

gendarmes  rendered  her  military  honors  and  pre- 
sented arms.  The  mother  rose  and  uttered  the 
words  her  dead  and  her  heart  inspired : 

"Even  so,  Vive  la  France !" 

All  of  them,  mothers  of  noble  birth  and  of  peas- 
ant stock,  rich  and  poor,  wives,  sisters,  and  fian- 
cees are  the  first  to  exhort  their  sons,  husbands 
and  brothers  to  fight  to  the  end.  All  have  the 
same  words  of  sacrifice  and  abnegation  on  their 
lips.  All  of  them  find  words  which  best  fortify, 
exalt  and  console  their  men. 

Read  this  letter  I  picked  up  on  the  field  of  bat- 
tle, a  letter  written  by  a  humble  peasant  woman 
whose  heart,  after  centuries  of  noble  and  wise 
discipline,  was  in  the  right  place: 

My  dear  Boy: 

We  got  your  letter,  which  gave  us  great  pleas- 
ure. We  waited  anxiously  for  it.  You  wrote  it 
two  days  ago.  Since  that  time  things  have 
changed.  Did  you  get  my  letter?  I  hope  so.  I 
must  reassure  you  about  your  father  the  very 
first  thing.  He  was  away  only  three  days,  time 
enough  to  guide  a  detachment  to  Bourges.     So 

74 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

there  is  only  one  vacant  place  at  the  fireside,  but 
how  big  that  one  is. 

My  dear  boy,  you  speak  to  me  of  sacrifice ;  yes, 
it  is  one.  And  I  can  tell  you  it  is  the  greatest  one 
that  has  ever  been  asked  of  me.  However,  I  keep 
calm.  I  tell  myself  sometimes  that  I  have  deserved 
it.  I  am  ready  to  pay,  but  I  wish  so  much  that 
you  might  not  pay. 

My  dear  boy,  you  speak  to  me  of  duty  and  of 
honor.  I  have  never  doubted  that  you  would  do 
what  you  ought  to.  Yes,  my  son,  a  soldier's  honor 
lies  in  being  on  the  battle  field  when  the  country 
is  in  danger.  Go,  then,  my  son,  with  the  blessing 
of  your  mother  and  your  father,  and  with  that 
most  mighty  one  of  your  country  and  of  heaven. 

You  tell  me  to  accept  my  lot  courageously. 
Alas,  sometimes  it  fails  me.  However,  I  shall  try 
to  be  resigned  and  I  hope  to  see  you  again  in  spite 
of  everything.  If  that  should  not  happen,  say  to 
yourself,  my  dear  boy,  when  you  close  your  eyes, 
that  you  have  all  the  love  and  all  the  sweetest 
kisses  of  your  mother,  who  would  like  to  fly  to 
you. 

The  sisters  are  worthy  of  their  mothers.  Here 
is  a  letter  written  by  two  young  girls  who  live  in 
Lorraine,  near  Nancy.  Plutarch  never  wrote  any- 
thing more  beautiful; 

75 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

MoYEN,  4  September,  1914. 
My  dear  Edouard: 

I  have  heard  that  Charles  and  Lucien  died  on 
the  twenty-eighth  of  August.  Eugene  is  badly 
wounded.  As  for  Louis  and  Jean,  they  are  dead 
also. 

Rose  has  gone  away. 

Mother  weeps,  but  she  says  that  you  are  brave 
and  wishes  that  you  may  avenge  them. 

I  hope  that  your  officers  will  not  refuse  you 
that.  Jean  won  the  Legion  of  Honor;  follow  in 
his  footsteps. 

They  have  taken  everything  from  us.  Of  the 
eleven  who  went  to  war,  eight  are  dead.  My  dear 
Edouard,  do  your  duty ;  we  ask  only  that. 

God  gave  you  life;  he  has  the  right  to  take  it 
away  from  you.     Mother  says  that. 

We  embrace  you  fondly,  although  we  would 
like  to  see  you.  The  Prussians  are  here.  Jandon 
is  dead;  they  have  piUaged  everything.  I  have 
just  returned  from  Gerbevillers,  which  is  de- 
stroyed.    What  wretches  they  are ! 

Sacrifice  your  life,  my  dear  brother.  We  hope 
to  see  you  again,  for  something  like  a  presentiment 
tells  us  to  hope, 

76 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

We  embrace  you  fondly.  Farewell,  and  may  we 
see  you  again,  if  God  grants. 

(Signed)     Your   Sisters. 

P.  S.  It  is  for  us  and  for  France.  Think  of 
your  brothers  and  of  your  grandfather  in  1870. 

And  this  next  letter  is  sublime.  It  was  ad- 
dressed to  M.  Maurice  Barres  by  a  lady  from  the 
city  of  Lyons,  which  is  perhaps  the  most  mystic 
city  in  all  France.  In  the  newspapers  mention 
had  been  made  of  the  men  disabled  by  war,  and  of 
all  the  unfortunates  who  were  mutilated,  whose 
limbs  had  been  amputated,  who  were  helpless  or 
blinded.  The  question  was  raised  of  knowing  what 
ought  to  be  done  to  help  them.  Then  the  lady 
wrote  as  follows  to  M.  Barres : 

Sir:  One  of  these  recent  days,  when  our  trou- 
bles have  been  so  hard  to  bear,  I  went  to  regain 
my  courage  into  one  of  the  beloved  sanctuaries 
of  Notre  Dame.  ...  A  lady  dressed  in  black 
came  in  beside  me  and,  as  all  mothers  are  sisters 
in  these  trying  days,  I  asked  after  her  men  at 
the  front.  She  told  me  sadly  that  she  was  a  poor 
widow,  and  that  the  war  had  taken  away  her  two 
sons,  her  sole  means  of  support.  One  of  them  had 
77 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

had  an  arm  amputated — the  right  arm — and  the 
hands  of  the  other  were  cut  off  at  the  wrists.  She 
came  from  seeing  them  to  pray  to  the  Mother  of 
Sorrows  for  her  children  and  herself. 

I  was  deeply  moved  by  her  sorrow  and  by  her 
not  complaining.  I  sought  means  to  console  her. 
This  is  the  means  I  have  found,  sir,  and  I  teU 
it  to  you  now.  .  .  . 

Let  us  ask  the  Virgin,  I  said  to  her,  to  create 
young  women  in  France  so  brave,  so  strong,  and 
so  devoted  that  they  will  gladly  and  proudly  con- 
sent to  marry  the  poor,  injured  men  and  to  be 
not  only  their  hearts  but  the  limbs  which  will  aid 
them  to  make  their  daily  bread;  leaving  to  the 
men  the  privilege  of  loving  them,  of  respecting 
their  presences  and  of  guiding  their  lives. 

The  poor  woman  understood  me.  We  sepa- 
rated. My  own  youngest  daughter  was  in  my 
thoughts ;  and  do  you  not  think  that  the  men  who 
have  a  wider  audience  could  stir  the  hearts  of  the 
young  women,  twenty  years  of  age  in  France,  if 
they  asked  them  to  perform  this  act  of  devotion, 
and  to  be  the  companions  of  the  mutilated,  maimed 
men  of  France  ?  ,  .  , 

Then,  too,  the  women  who  had  only  their  dig- 
nity and  their  high  spirit  to   defend  themselves 
against  the  grossness  and  the  insults  of  the  Prus- 
78 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

sians,  have  been  the  incarnation  of  the  spirit  of 
France. 

An  old  woman  who  dwelt  in  a  village  on  the 
Aisne  was  spattered  with  mud  by  the  Kaiser  as 
he  passed  by  on  horseback.  He  made  a  gesture 
excusing  himself.  She  fixed  her  eyes  on  him  and 
said  simply: 

"It  doesn't  matter,  sir.  That  mud  can  be 
washed  off." 

A  great  lady  in  one  of  the  chateaux  in  the  in- 
vaded regions,  had  to  receive  one  of  the  Kaiser's 
sons.  The  day  of  his  departure  he  sent  for  her 
to  thank  her  for  the  hospitality  she  had  shown 
him.  The  old  lady,  looking  at  him,  contented  her- 
self with  replying : 

"Do  not  thank  me,  sir.  I  did  not  invite  you 
here." 

And  she  reentered  her  house  with  all  dignity. 

Because  the  women  of  France  have  been  all 

this  and  have  done  aU  this,  France  has  been  able 

to  fight  on,  and  will  be  able  to  fight  to  the  end. 

Because  the  women  of  France  have  been  all  this 

79 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

and  have  done  all  this,  the  soldiers,  in  the  mud 
of  the  trenches,  revere  them  as  Madonnas. 

The  historian  Tacitus  teUs  somewhere  how,  on 
a  hot  spring  day,  a  slave,  panting  and  worn  out, 
entered  one  of  the  gates  of  the  Eternal  City. 
He  crossed  the  Forum  without  stopping  and,  in 
his  course,  mounted  the  HiU  of  Mars.  Finally 
he  came  to  one  of  the  greatest  houses  of  the  pa- 
trician section  of  the  city.  His  cries  and  shouts 
filled  the  house: 

"Alas,  alas !"  he  cried. 

A  lady  hastened  to  him.  She  was  the  mistress 
of  the  house,  the  famous  Cornelia  Graccha. 

"What  news  do  you  bring?"  she  asked. 

"Alas,  alas,'*  repeated  the  slave,  "in  the  battle 
down  there  in  Umbria,  two  of  your  sons  have  been 
killed." 

"Fool,"  was  the  reply,  "I  do  not  ask  that.  Have 
the  Barbarians  been  conquered.?" 

"They  have,  Cornelia." 

"Then  what  matters  the  death  of  my  sons  if 
my  country  is  victorious!" 

Those  wonderful  words  have  been  hanided  down 
80 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

from  generation  to  generation  as  a  symbol  of 
what  ancient  Rome  was.  Those  words  thousands 
of  French  women  have  uttered  for  the  last  four 
years,  and  they  still  utter  them  today.  Other 
voices  s.nswer  them.  They  rise  from  the  trenches, 
and  they  say : 

"Be  without  fear,  women  of  France.  For  you 
we  win  fight  to  our  last  gasp,  we  will  shed  our 
last  drop  of  blood.  Know  that  if  for  months  we 
have  held  our  heads  below  the  level  of  the  muddy 
trench  and  offered  our  breasts  to  death,  it  is  that 
you  may  be  freed  from  the  wild  beasts  that  have 
burst  forth  from  the  German  forests.  For  your 
sakes  our  homes  are  not  in  ruins  and  our  towns 
are  not  vassals  to  the  enemy.  It  is  all  for  you,  so 
that  when  we  shall  return  you  need  not  throw 
your  arms  around  conquered  necks.  Our  country, 
women  of  France,  is  made  up  of  our  homes,  our 
churches,  and  our  fields,  and  of  your  beloved  faces. 
Throughout  the  tragic  periods  of  its  history,  our 
country  has  always  been  incarnated  in  your  faces, 
whether  they  called  themselves  St.  Genevieve  or 
Jeanne  d'Arc.  And  in  our  building,  to  personify 
the  cities  that  are  dear  to  us,  we  have  always  taken 
your  bodies,  your  foreheads,  and  the  folds  of  your 
gowns — see,  in  Paris,  that  statue  in  the  Place  de 
81 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

la  Concorde,  in  the  shadow  of  the  Tuileries,  which 
for  days  has  worn  a  crepe  veil.  .  .  .  Well,  today 
is  the  same  as  yesterday.  In  our  trenches  our 
country  appears  to  us  in  those  visions  wherein  are 
mingled  your  faces.  We  shall  believe  that  our 
country  has  been  well  served  only  when,  on  your 
beloved  faces,  we  shall  have  caused  a  smile  to  ap- 
pear because  the  palms  we  have  placed  at  your 
feet  are  the  palms  of  victory.'* 

Future  historians  will  state  that  France  has 
fought  not  only  with  all  her  courage,  her  tenacity 
and  her  soul,  with  all  her  men,  women  and  chil- 
dren: they  will  also  state  that  these  men,  women 
and  children,  in  spite  of  the  terrible  times,  their 
suffering  and  their  mourning,  have  remained  firm- 
ly united,  forming  a  firm  rock  from  which  not  a 
single  stone  has  been  splintered. 

In  that  tormented,  feverish  France  where  the 
ardor  of  the  Revolution  still  boils,  there  were, 
before  the  war,  different  parties,  cliques,  groups 
and  churches.  The  war  has  leveled,  united  and 
bound  them  all  together. 

In  some  admirable  pages,  consecrated  to  the 
"Effort  of  French  Womanhood,"  M.  Louis  Bar- 
8^ 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

thou  has  painted  the  picture  of  the  sacred  union 
there  is  among  all  the  French  women : 

I  have  seen  [he  writes]  our  women  at  the  front 
and  behind  the  lines,  in  the  hospitals,  the  railway 
stations,  the  automobile  service,  the  canteens,  the 
factories,  in  relief  work  and  in  charity  work.  I 
have  met  nurses,  unmoved  under  a  bombardment. 
I  have  tested  the  spirit  of  fellowship  which  unites 
them,  including  as  it  does  the  names  of  the  most 
aristocratic  French  families  and  the  most  modest 
citizens.  There  is  no  false  pride  among  those  in 
high  places  nor  envy  among  those  lower  in  the 
social  scale.  They  wear  the  same  garb,  the  same 
cap,  with  the  same  cross  on  their  foreheads.  For 
the  soldiers  there  is  the  same  uniform,  and  when 
you  say  uniform  you  mean  equality  in  devotion,  in 
the  risk  of  life,  and  in  loyalty  to  duty.  Between 
the  classes  of  society  there  is  no  contention,  there 
is  only  emulation.  I  do  not  know  whether  or  not, 
in  times  of  peace,  they  had  all  and  everywhere 
escaped  the  local  passions  which  have  poisoned  na- 
tional life,  but  the  war  has  given  them  sacred  union 
for  a  countersign,  and  they,  as  disciplined  soldiers, 
have  respected  this  countersign. 

The  French  nurse's  smile  wiU  have  served  the 
nation's  defense  well,  but  I  emphasize  this  when  I 
think  how  well  it  will  have  served  the  nation's  imi- 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

ty  in  the  aftermath  that  shall  fallow  war.  What 
rancors  it  will  have  appeased!  What  jealousies 
it  will  have  blotted  out!  What  petty  prejudices 
it  will  have  conquered !  These  society  women  and 
women  of  the  middle  class  who  have  leaned  over 
the  beds  of  sick  or  wounded  peasants,  and  these 
young  girls  who  have  tended  their  hurts,  bound 
up  their  wounds,  and  calmed  their  sufferings  have, 
with  their  delicate  hands,  so  expert  in  the  worst 
treatments,  laid  the  foundations  of  a  France  that 
is  united,  and  fraternal,  where  envy  and  hate  have 
no  place.  All  eyes  have  opened  to  broader  vistas 
of  revealed  clearness,  to  which  they  have  hitherto 
remained  closed  through  prejudice,  or  obstinacy. 
They  will  have  learned  that  bravery,  devotion  to 
the  right,  loyal  and  tried  disinterestedness,  heart- 
felt and  wise  knowledge  can  dwell  in  the  simple 
soul  of  the  peasant  and  the  workingman.  The 
peasants  and  the  workingmen  who  have  come  out 
from  their  care  will  have  learned  that  luxury  does 
not  exclude  goodness,  that  beauty  is  not  always  a 
sterile  gift,  that  youth  is  not  altogether  callow, 
that  a  woman  can  be  pretty  and  generous,  deli- 
cate and  courageous,  rich  and  sympathetic,  and 
that  the  mothers  whose  children  are  dead  excel 
in  lavishing  the  care  of  their  hands  and  the  ten- 
derness of  their  hearts  on  the  wounded  children 
who  are  suffering  far  from  their  mothers. 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

The  sacred  sense  of  union  that  reigns  among 
the  men  is  no  less  firm.  It  is  only  necessary  to 
read  the  letters  written  on  the  eve  of  their  deaths 
— in  that  hour  when  a  man,  alone,  face  to  face 
with  himself,  lets  his  soul  speak — ^by  the  fighters 
who  gave  their  heart's  blood  for  the  sacred  cause. 

They  all  say  the  same  things. 

Here  is  a  letter  a  Jew  wrote,  named  Rob- 
ert Hertz,  a  second  lieutenant  of  the  330th  in- 
fantry regiment,  who  fell  on  the  13th  of  April, 
1915,  at  Marcheville : 

My  Dear  :  I  remember  the  dreams  I  had  when 
I  was  a  little  child.  With  aU  my  soul  I  wished  to 
be  a  Frenchman,  to  be  worthy  to  be  one,  and  to 
prove  that  I  was  one.  .  .  .  Now  the  old,  childish 
dream  comes  back  to  me,  stronger  than  it  ever  was. 
I  am  grateful  to  the  officers  who  have  accepted 
me  for  their  subordinate,  to  the  men  I  have  been 
proud  to  lead.  They  are  the  children  of  a  chosen 
people.  I  am  full  of  gratitude  towards  our  coun- 
try which  has  received  me  and  heaped  favors  upon 
me.  Nothing  would  be  too  much  to  give  in  pay- 
ment for  that,  and  for  the  fact  that  my  little  son 
may  always  hold  his  head  high  and  never  know, 
in  the  reborn  France,  that  torment  which  has 
85 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

poisoned  many  hours  of  our  childhood  and  of  our 
youth.  "Am  I  a  Frenchman  ?"  "Would  I  deserve 
to  be  one?"  No,  little  boy,  you  shaU  not  say  that. 
You  shall  have  a  native  land  and  your  step  may 
sound  on  the  earth,  nourishing  you  with  the  as- 
surance, "My  father  was  there  and  he  gave  all  he 
had  for  France."  If  recompense  is  necessary,  this 
is  the  sweetest  one  there  is  for  me. 

This  is  the  letter  of  a  Protestant,  second  lieu- 
tenant Maurice  Dieterlin,  who  was  killed  on  the 
sixth  of  October,  1915,  and  who,  on  the  eve  of 
the  Champagne  offensive,  wrote  these  last  words 
they  were  to  read  from  him,  to  his  family : 

I  saw  the  most  beautiful  day  of  all  my  life.  I 
regret  nothing  and  I  am  as  happy  as  a  king.  I 
am  glad  to  pay  my  debt  that  my  country  may  be 
free.  Tell  my  friends  that  I  go  on  to  victory  with 
a  smile  on  my  lips,  happier  than  the  stoics  and  the 
martyrs  of  all  time.  For  a  moment  we  are  beyond 
the  France  that  is  eternal.  France  ought  to  live. 
France  will  live.  Get  ready  your  loveliest  gowns, 
keep  your  best  smiles  to  welcome  the  conquerors 
in  the  great  war.  Perhaps  we  shall  not  be  there, 
but  there  will  be  others  in  our  places.  Do  not 
weep,  do  not  wear  mourning,  for  we  shall  have 

86 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

died  with  a  sweet  smile  on  our  lips  and  a  lovely 
superhumanitj  in  our  hearts.  Vive  la  France! 
Vive  la  France! 

What  wonderful  enthusiasm!  But  still  more 
beautiful  is  this  prayer,  that  of  a  little  Protestant 
soldier  from  the  Montbeliard  country,  who  died 
in  the  Gare  d'Amberieu  hospital: 

"Lord,  may  Thy  will  and  not  mine  be  done.  I 
have  consecrated  myself  to  Thee  since  my  youth, 
and  I  hope  that  the  example  I  have  offered  may 
serve  to  glorify  Thee. 

"Lord,  Thou  knowest  that  I  have  not  desired 
war,  but  that  I  have  fought  to  do  Thy  will;  I 
offer  my  life  for  peace. 

"Lord,  I  pray  Thee  for  the  welfare  of  my  peo- 
ple. Thou  knowest  how  greatly  I  love  them  all, 
my  father,  my  mother,  my  brothers  and  my  sis- 
ters. 

"Lord,  return  manyfold  to  these  nurses  the 
good  they  have  done  me;  I  am  but  a  poor  man 
but  Thou  art  the  dispenser  of  riches.  I  pray  to 
Thee  fqr  them  all." 

This  prayer,  in  which  the  little  soldier  had  put 
his  last  living  thoughts,  was  received  by  a  Catho^ 
87 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

He  sister  who  had  cared  for  him,  and  sent  by  her 
to  his  sorrowing  family — a  touching  proof  of 
sacred  union. 

All  of  them,  Catholics,  Protestants  and  Jews, 
speak  of  God  and  pray  to  Him.  .  .  .  Read  this 
letter  from  Captain  Cornet-Acquier,  that  captain 
to  whom  his  wife  wrote,  "I  would  urge  you  on  with 
my  voice  if  I  saw  you  charging  the  enemy."  He 
tells  this  little  incident: 

"A  Catholic  captain  was  saying  the  other  day 
that  he  said  his  prayers  before  each  battle.  The 
commanding  officer  remarked  that  that  was  not 
the  proper  moment  and  that  he  would  do  better 
to  make  his  military  arrangements. 

"  ^ir,*  he  replied,  *that  does  not  prevent  me 
from  making  my  military  arrangements  and  from 
fighting.     I  feel  better  for  it.' '' 

"Then  I  said: 

"  'Captain,  I  do  the  same  thing  you  do.  And 
I  find  I  get  along  pretty  weU.' " 

This  is  the  letter  a  young  Catholic  wrote  the 
evening  before  a  battle  to  his  fiancee : 


88 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

My  dear  Jeanne  : 

Tomorrow  at  ten  o'clock,  to  the  sounds  of  "Sidi 
Brahim"  and  the  "Marseillaise"  we  charge  the 
German  lines.  The  attack  will  probably  be  dead- 
ly. On  the  eve  of  this  great  day,  which  may  be 
my  last,  I  want  to  recall  to  you  your  prom- 
ise. .  ,  .  Comfort  my  mother.  For  a  week  she; 
will  have  no  news.  TeU  her  that  when  a  man 
is  in  an  attack  he  can  not  write  to  those  he  loves. 
He  must  be  content  with  thinking  of  them.  And 
if  time  passes  and  she  hears  nothing  from  me^ 
let  her  live  in  hope.  Help  her.  And  if  you  learn 
at  last  that  I  have  fallen  on  the  field  of  honor,  let 
the  words  come  from  your  heart  that  will  console 
her,  my  dear  Jeanne. 

This  morning  I  attended  mass  and  communion 
with  faith.  It  was  held  some  yards  away  from 
the  trenches.  If  I  am  to  die,  I  shall  die  a  Christian 
and  a  Frenchman. 

I  believe  in  God,  in  France  and  in  Victory.  I 
believe  in  beauty  and  youth  and  life.  May  God 
guard  me  to  the  end.  But,  Lord,  if  my  blood  is 
useful  for  victory,  may  Thy  will  be  done. 

Finally,  here  is  a  priest.  Father  Gilbert  de  Gi- 
ronde,  second  lieutenant  in  the  81st  infantry,  who 
was  killed  on  the  seventh  of  December,  1914,  at 
89 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

Ypres,  writing  his  last  letter.  .  .  .  For  of  the 
twenty-five  thousand  priests  who  went  off  at  the 
beginning  of  the  mobolization,  three  hundred  were 
called  military  chaplains,  the  rest  were  officers, 
stretcher-bearers,  or  common  soldiers — and  note 
the  4,000  citations  in  the  army  orders  which  the 
** Journal  Officiel"  has  published,  which  report  the 
acts  of  courage  and  of  bravery  done  by  these 
priests  on  the  battle  field: 

To  die  young.  To  die  a  priest.  To  die  as  a 
soldier  in  the  attack,  marching  to  the  assault  in 
full  sacerdotal  garb,  perhaps  in  the  act  of  grant- 
ing an  absolution;  to  shed  my  blood  for  the 
Church,  for  France,  for  her  AUies,  for  all  those 
who  carry  in  their  hearts  the  same  ideal  I  do, 
and  for  the  others  also,  that  they  may  know  the 
joy  of  belief  .  .  .  how  beautiful  that  is,  how  beau- 
tiful that  is ! 

Catholics,  Protestants,  Jews,  priests,  ministers 
and  rabbis,  that  is  what  they  write.  It  is  a  be- 
littling, a  profanation,  that,  in  spite  of  myself, 
I  have  separated  and  differentiated  among  them. 
For  down  there,  in  the  bloody  mud  of  the  trenches, 

90 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

they  are  one  body  which  lives  together  and  dies 
together. 

There  was  a  little  Breton  who,  on  the  Battle 
field  of  the  Marne,  was  shot  in  the  chest.  The 
death  agony  at  once  set  in,  and  in  his  agony  he 
asked  for  a  crucifix.  No  priest  happened  to  be 
on  the  spot,  there  was  only  a  Jewish  rabbi.  The 
rabbi  ran  to  get  the  crucifix,  he  brought  it  to  the 
lips  of  the  dying  man,  and  he,  in  his  turn,  was 
kiUed!  .  .  . 

In  a  little  barrack  in  the  hoUow  of  one  of  the 
depressions  at  Verdun  lived  together  a  priest,  a 
minister  and  a  rabbi.  We  often  saw  the  place. 
On  the  evening  after  a  frightful  battle,  they  were 
all  three  in  the  charnel  house  where  the  dead  bodies 
are  brought.  They  were  surrounded  by  stretcher- 
bearers,  who  said  to  them: 

"We  do  not  dare  throw  earth  on  the  bodies  of 
our  comrades  without  a  prayer  being  said  over 
them." 

The  Catholic  priest  asked  to  what  faith  they 
belonged. 

91 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

"We  do  not  know.  How  can  we  find  out?  But 
can't  you  arrange  among  yourselves  ?" 

"Well,  we  shall  bless  them  one  after  the  other,'* 

And  there  in  the  bleeding  night  was  seen  the 
incomparable  sight  of  the  three  men  side  by  side, 
the  Catholic,  the  Protestant  and  the  Jew,  reciting 
the  last  prayer  and  disappearing.  .  .  . 

M.  Maurice  Barres,  the  celebrated  French 
writer,  from  whose  magnificent  book,  "The  Spirit- 
ual Families  of  France,"  I  have  borrowed  a  great 
number  of  the  letters  I  have  quoted,  has  pointed 
out  that  all  French  churches  are  fighting  in  this 
hour,  forming  one  great  church.  Yes,  every 
church  and  every  saint  is  fighting!  These  saints 
belong  to  all  beliefs,  some  of  them  to  no  belief. 
But  one  religion  has  united  and  solidified  them 
all — the  religion  of  their  country,  the  religion  of 
Liberty,  the  religion  of  civilization.  All  speak 
the  same  prayer,  all  have  the  same  faith  in  their 
hearts,  all  fall  martyrs  in  the  same  cause. 

The  old  walls  which,  in  times  of  peace,  sep- 
arated parties  and  men,  have  crumbled  into  dust 
at  the  same  time  when  the  German  shells  crum- 
9S 


HOW  FRANCE  IS  FIGHTING 

bled  into  dust  the  little  village  churches.  An  in- 
finite cathedral,  a  cathedral  that  is  invisible  and 
great  has  risen  on  high.  It  is  the  cathedral  of 
the  faith  of  France,  in  which  all  faiths  commune 
in  the  same  hope — a  cathedral  which  time  and  suf- 
fering and  death  itself  shall  not  destroj. 


Ill 

FRANCE   SUFFERING   BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

LISTEN  to  the  man  in  the  street  when  he 
speaks — that  man  in  the   street  who   re- 
flects  public   opinion   whether   it  is   just 
or  unjust,  genuine  or  sophisticated.     Listen   to 
him  when  he  speaks  and  you  will  hear  him  say : 

"Yes,  we  know.  France  has  a  well  tempered 
spirit.  But  the  blood  is  gone  out  of  her  body. 
France  would  like  to  fight  on,  to  fight  to  the  bitter 
end,  but  France  is  suffering.  France  is  worn  out. 
France  is  bled  white." 

France  is  suffering  .  .  .  that  is  true.  In  the 
cataclysm  that  she  did  not  wish  for,  that  she  did 
not  start,  that  she  did  not  prepare,  she  has  lost 
more  than  a  million  men.  And  what  men  they 
were!  The  Ecole  Normale,  which  is  the  prepara- 
tory school  for  the  French  university,  lost  seventy 

94 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

per  cent  of  its  pupils.  That  means  that  three- 
quarters  of  the  thinkers,  the  literary  men,  the 
scientists,  the  philosophers,  the  professors  of  the 
France  of  tomorrow  have  been  wiped  out.  They 
were  the  flower  of  her  youth,  the  elite  of  her  in- 
telligence. Add  to  that  seven  departments, 
roughly  20,000  square  kilometers  in  area,  which 
have  been  invaded,  devastated,  ruined  and  pil- 
laged. In  these  seven  departments  all  the  machin- 
ery, all  the  raw  materials,  all  the  merchandise,  all 
the  furniture  even  to  the  door-knobs  and  the 
boards  in  the  floors  have  been  taken  away.  These 
departments  were  among  the  richest  and  most 
prosperous  of  those  on  which  France  prided  her- 
self most  industrially. 

Add  to  that  the  cultivation  that  has  been  de- 
stroyed, the  soil  that  has  been  made  untillable,  the 
trees  that  have  been  cut  down,  the  roads  that  have 
been  torn  up  and  the  bridges  that  have  been  de- 
stroyed. All  the  misery,  all  the  mourning,  all  the 
sickness:  a  million  wounded  and  injured  men  who 
have  been  lost  as  living  forces  by  a  nation  which 
did  not  have  too  many  inhabitants.  Add  the  hun- 
95 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

dred  thousand  prisoners  Germany  sends  back  to 
us  who  have  been  made  tuberculous,  paralytics, 
nervous  wrecks  or  lunatics  because  they  have  been 
physically  maltreated.  Yes,  France  is  suffer- 
ing. 

But  it  is  not  true  that  she  is  worn  out.  It  is 
not  true  that  she  is  bled  white.  The  horrible  hope 
Germany  had  formed  of  emptying  France  of  her 
strength,  of  leaving  her,  fighting  for  breath  and 
conquered,  beaten  to  the  earth  for  centuries  to 
come,  has  not  been  realized.  France  always 
stands  upright,  her  arm  is  still  strong,  her  muscles 
vigorous  and  her  blood  rich. 

To  destroy  the  lie  that  France  is  bled  white, 
we  must  let  figures,  facts,  statistics  and  definite 
proofs  speak.  The  public  shall  judge  for  it- 
self. .  .  . 

A  nation  that  is  worn  out  and  bled  white  has 
no  army  to  defend  itself.  France  not  only  stiU 
has  an  army,  but  she  has  an  army  that  is  numeri- 
cally and  materially  stronger  than  it  was  at  the 
war's  beginning.  In  1914,  at  the  Mame,  France 
had  an  army  of  1,500,000  men;  today,  after  four 
96 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

years  of  war,  France  has  on  her  battle  front,  in 
the  war  zone,  an  army  of  2,750,000  men. 

But  the  value  of  fighting  men  today  lies  only 
in  the  artillery  they  have  to  support  them  behind 
the  lines.  It  lies  in  the  shells  the  artillery  is 
able  to  fire,  in  all  that  material  that  makes  up  the 
sinews  of  war  of  the  present  day.  Here  we  find 
the  most  extraordinary  and  marvelous  effort  that 
history  records.  France,  invaded,  occupied, 
weakened ;  France  that  had  no  munitions  industry 
prior  to  1914 — or  a  small  munitions  industry  at 
best — that  France  has  built  up  a  war  industry 
that  is  doubtless  the  best  in  the  world,  which  is 
equal  to  the  German  war  industry  and  on  which 
the  Allies  can  draw  in  the  common  cause. 

Listen  to  these  figures  and  keep  them  in  your 
heads.  They  are  vouched  for  by  M.  Millerand, 
who  was  minister  of  war  during  the  first  year  of 
hostilities : 

The  Battle  of  the  Marne  emptied  our  store- 
houses. 

On  the  seventeenth  of  September,  1914,  the 
minister  of  war,  who  had  then  been  scarcely  three 
97 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

weeks  in  office,  was  informed  that  munitions  threat- 
ened to  fail  our  artillery,  and  that  it  was  neces- 
sary without  delay  to  bring  to  the  front  100,000 
shells  per  day  instead  of  13,500  for  the  .75  guns. 
This  was  merely  a  beginning.  Three  days  later, 
on  the  twentieth  of  September,  the  minister  as- 
sembled at  Bordeaux  the  representatives  of  the 
munitions  industry  and  divided  them  up  into  re- 
gional groups.  At  the  head  of  each  one  he  made 
one  establishment  or  one  individual  the  responsible 
person.  In  the  face  of  difficulties  which  could  not 
be  conceived  unless  they  had  been  overcome,  with 
establishments  diminished  in  personnel  as  well  as 
in  raw  material,  inexperienced  for  the  most  part 
in  the  complex  and  delicate  operations  which  were 
expected  of  them,  the  manufacture  of  shells  for 
the  .75's  mounted  from  147,000  which  it  had  been 
in  the  month  of  August,  1914,  to  1,970,000  in 
the  month  of  January,  1915,  and  then  to  3,396,- 
000  during  the  month  of  July,  1915. 

222  .75  guns  per  month  have  been  constructed 
since  the  month  of  May,  1915.  227  were  con- 
structed in  the  month  of  July,  407  in  the  month  of 
January,  1916.  For  this  construction,  as  for  all 
the  others,  once  a  start  was  made,  there  was  no 
stopping  it. 

All  orders  for  heavy  guns  had  been  counter- 
manded at  the  beginning  of  August,  1914.  They 
98 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

were  resumed  in  the  month  of  September,  1914. 
Seventy-five  per  cent  of  the  orders  for  heavy  guns, 
on  which  we  got  along  until  April,  1917,  had  been 
given  out  between  September,  1914,  and  the  thirty- 
first  of  October,  1915.  In  the  first  seven  months 
of  the  war,  from  September,  1914,  to  April,  1915, 
there  were  constructed  three  hundred  and  sixty 
pieces  of  heavy  artillery.  On  August  first,  1914, 
we  had  only  sixty-eight  batteries.  A  year  later, 
to  the  day,  on  the  first  of  August,  1915,  we  had 
two  hundred  and  seventy-two  batteries  of  heavy 
artillery. 

Now  consider  these  figures,  given  out  by  M. 
Andre  Tardieu,  High  Commissioner  of  the  French 
Republic  at  Washington,  in  a  letter  to  the  Hon. 
Newton  D.  Baker,  Secretary  of  War: 

In  the  matter  of  heavy  artillery,  in  August, 
1914,  we  had  only  three  hundred  guns  distributed 
among  the  various  regiments.  In  June,  1917,  we 
had  six  thousand  heavy  guns,  all  of  them  modem. 
During  our  spring  ofi*ensive  in  1917,  we  had  rough- 
ly one  heavy  gun  for  every  twenty-six  meters  of 
front.  If  we  had  brought  together  all  our  heavy 
artillery  and  all  our  trench  artillery,  we  would 
have  had  one  gun  for  every  eight  meters  in  the 
battle  sector. 

99 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

In  August,  1914,  we  were  making  twelve  thou- 
sand shells  for  the  .75's  per  day,  now  we  are  mak- 
ing two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  shells  for  the 
.75's  and  one  hundred  thousand  shells  for  the 
heavy  guns  per  day. 

If  you  wish  to  consider  the  weight  of  the  sheUs 
which  fell  on  the  German  trenches  during  our  last 
offensives,  you  will  find  the  following  figures  for 
each  linear  meter: 

Field  artillery 407  kilos 

Trench  artillery 203  kilos 

Heavy    artillery 704  kilos 

High  Power  artillery 12  kilos 

Total 1442  kilos 

And  these  are  the  figures  for  the  monthly  ex- 
penditure in  munitions  for  the  .75's  alone: 

July,  1916 6,400,000  shells 

September,  1916 7,000,000  shells 

October,  1916 5,500,000  shells 

During  the  last  offensive  the  total  expenditure 
amounted  to  twelve  million  projectiles  of  all  cali- 
bers. 

This  incomparable  war  industry  has  permitted 
us  not  only  to  fight,  to  defend  ourselves  and  to 
100 


SUFFERING  BUT  J^QT  ^LKp  WPfT^; 

attack  the  enemy,  but  also  to  supply  our  friends, 
our  Allies,  with  the  munitions  necessary  to  fight. 
Up  to  January,  1918,  these  are  the  amounts  of 
munitions  France  was  able  to  hand  over  to  the 
nations  fighting  at  her  side  in  Europe : 

1,350,000  rifles 
800,000,000  cartridges 
16,000,000  automatic  rifles 
10,000  mitrailleuses 
2,500  heavy  guns 
4,750  airplanes 

And  to  France  has  come  the  honor  of  making 
the  light  artillery  for  the  American  Army — 
amounting  to  several  hundred  guns   per  month. 


A  nation  that  is  worn  out  and  bled  white  has 
an  empty  treasury  and  is  no  longer  able  to  ob- 
tain taxes  from  its  ruined  citizens.  Let  us  con- 
sider what  France  had  done  in  a  financial  way  in 
this  war. 

From  the  first  of  August,  1914,  to  the  first  of 
January,  1918,  the  French  Parliament  voted  war 
101 


PiOHTI>^<>.  FRANCE 

credits  amounting  to  twenty  billions  of  dollars. 
Of  this  enormous  fund  only  two  billions  have 
been  borrowed  from  outside  sources;  all  the 
remainder  has  been  subscribed  or  paid  for  by 
taxation  or  by  loans  in  France  herself.  More 
than  a  billion  dollars  has  been  loaned  to  her  Allies 
by  France. 

In  1917  France  had  the  heaviest  budget  in  aU 
her  history.  The  single  item  of  taxes  was  raised 
to  six  billion  francs  ($1,200,000),  and  these  taxes 
were  paid  to  the  penny,  although  ten  million 
Frenchmen  were  mobilized  in  the  Army,  in  the 
factories,  and  on  the  farms,  or  were  untaxable 
in  the  occupied  regions. 

In  1915,  1916  and  1917  France  raised  three 
great  national  loans.  That  of  1915  amounted  to 
exactly  13,307,811,579  francs,  40  centimes,  of 
which  6,017  millions  were  paid  in  hard  cash.  That 
of  October,  1916,  amounted  in  round  numbers  to 
ten  billions  francs,  of  which  more  than  five  billions 
were  paid  in  hard  cash.  That  of  December,  1917, 
amounted  to  10,629,000,000  francs,  of  which 
5,254  millions  were  paid  in  cash. 
102 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

Thus,  in  spite  of  the  war,  her  invaded  territor- 
ies, and  her  mobilized  citizens,  France  has  in  three 
years  raised  three  national  loans  of  almost  seven- 
teen billions  francs  in  hard  cash.  That  is  three 
times  the  amount  of  the  war  indemnity  she  paid 
Prussia  in  1871. 

A  nation  worn  out  and  bled  white  has  no  more 
monetary  reserve,  no  more  funds  in  its  treasury,, 
and  has  been  brought  into  bankruptcy.  The 
Bank  of  France,  which  is  probably  the  leading 
national  bank  in  the  world,  whose  credit  has  never 
weakened  in  the  gravest  hours  of  the  nation's  his- 
tory, declared  on  the  first  of  January,  1918,  a 
gold  reserve  of  5,348  millions  of  francs,  an  increase 
of  272  millions  over  the  gold  in  hand  on  January 
first,  1917.  This  is  the  greatest  deposit  the  bank 
has  ever  had.  All  this  came  from  the  national 
resources :  the  weekly  payments  are  still  a  million 
and  a  half  francs,  which  are  paid  without  com- 
pulsion and  without  legal  processes. 

The  individual  deposits  in  the  great  credit  es- 
tablishments of  France  which,  on  the  thirty-first 
of  December,  1914,  amounted  to  only  4,050  mil- 
103 


FIOHTING  FRANCE 

lions  of  francs,  amounted  to  6,050  millions  oh  the 
thirty-first  of  December,  1917. 

And  during  the  first  three  months  of  the  year 
1918,  from  the  first  of  January  to  the  thirty-first 
of  March,  the  surplus  deposits  made  by  the  peas- 
ants and  the  working  classes  in  the  National  Sav- 
ing Bank  was  seventy-five  millions  of  francs,  an 
excess  of  more  than  eight  hundred  thousand  francs 
daily. 

A  nation  that  is  worn  out  and  bled  white  is 
incapable  of  manufacturing  and  sees  its  commerce 
and  industry  perish.  Here  is  the  statement  of 
M.  Georges  Pallain,  Governor  of  the  Bank  of 
France,  representing  the  accounting  of  the  Coun- 
sel General  of  the  Bank  for  1917: 

From  the  industrial  and  commercial  point  of 
view,  a  satisfactory  amelioration  is  noticeable. 
The  investigation  of  the  Minister  of  Industry  in 
July  last  permits  the  statement  that  the  percent- 
age of  factories  and  business  houses  rendering  a 
periodical  accounting,  of  which  the  advantage  is 
not  yet  established,  is  only  twenty-three  per  cent ; 
it  was  fifty-five  per  cent  in  August,  1914. 
104 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

An  indication  of  the  development  of  industrial 
activity  is  furnished  by  the  continued  increase  of 
the  demand  for  coal. 

Operations  for  mining  ore  have  been  pushed 
with  vigor.  Coal  production  increased  greatly  in 
1914.  On  the  whole  it  still  remains  less  than  it 
was  before  the  war,  since  the  invasion  has  deprived 
us  of  the  valleys  in  the  north  and  the  richest  por- 
tion of  Pas-de-Calais;  but  in  the  regions  where 
mining  is  still  possible  the  production  exceeds  by 
about  forty  per  cent  the  figures  for  1913. 

This  remarkable  increase  has  compensated  to  a 
certain  extent  for  the  falling  off  in  the  importa- 
tions of  coal  from  England ;  nevertheless  it  leaves 
our  supply  of  coal  less  than  our  demand  for  it. 

To  remedy  this  insufficiency  and,  at  the  same 
time,  to  give  our  national  industry  greater  inde- 
pendence, researches  and  experiments  have  been 
equally  intensified  with  a  view  to  employing  our 
hydraulic  resources.  In  the  Alps,  in  the  Pyrenees 
and  in  the  central  Massif  new  installations  are 
under  way,  and  they  have  already  attracted  im- 
portant  metallurgic   and   chemical  plants. 

The  development  of  industrial  production  has 
had  the  result  of  an  increase  in  the  volume  of  com- 
mercial transactions.  These  continue  to  look 
after  themselves  and,  for  the  most  part,  they  are 
on  a  cash  basis.  The  gradual  resumption  of  credit 
105 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

operations,  which  former  years  signalized,  is  still 
on  the  increase.  In  1917  the  receipts  from  com- 
merce were  thirty-seven  per  cent  greater  than  in 
1916.  There  is  a  notable  progression  of  dis- 
counts, while  the  total  of  our  delayed  payments 
has  been  brought  back  to  1,140  millions. 

A  nation  that  is  worn  out  and  bled  white  is 
unable  to  bind  up  its  wounds  or  relieve  its  bed 
of  suffering.  France  has  not  waited  for  the  end 
of  the  war  and  the  evacuation  of  her  territory  to 
bring  in  life  where  the  Germans  thought  they  had 
left  only  death. 

In  eighty-four  of  the  liberated  cantons  the  work 
of  reconstruction  has  already  commenced.  Com- 
missions have  been  appointed.  These  commissions 
have  proceeded  already  to  the  evaluation  of  the 
damage  done  and,  without  waiting  for  authoriza- 
tion, the  administration  has  paid  advances 
amounting  to  a  not  inconsiderable  figure.  Thus  a 
sum  totalling  more  than  one  hundred  and  forty 
millions  francs  has  been  expended  for  the  re- 
construction of  the  liberated  regions.  Seventeen 
millions  have  been  expended  in  cash  for  repairs; 
106 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

in  advances  to  the  farmers  far  work  or  supplies, 
twenty  millions;  in  advances  to  workmen,  a  half 
million;  for  the  circulation  of  funds  to  the  farm- 
ers, merchants  and  small  manufactures,  two  mil- 
lions ;  under  the  heading  of  reconstruction  of 
buildings  or  the  rapid  reinstallation  of  the  evacu- 
ated population,  one  hundred  millions. 

An  Office  National  de  Reconstrtiction  for 
the  viUages  has  been  established,  and  an  agricul- 
tural Office  National  de  Reconstitwtion  has 
been  organized;  great  things  have  already  been 
realized  from  private  organizations.  This  is  the 
account  of  what  one  of  them,  the  organization  of 
National  Nurseries,  sent  in  191 4  to  the  front  and 
into  the  liberated  regions : 

6,717,575  cabbage  plants 

1,980,000  turnip  and  rutabaga  plants 

41,000  radish  plants 

27,200  cauliflowers 

270,250  white  beets 

5,340,500  leek  plants 

1,836,800  chicory  and  endive  plants 

104,500  celery  plants 

105,000  tomato  plants 
107 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

16,900  tetragon  plants 
9,569,4*50  onion  sprouts 
26,009,175  total  plants  of  various  kinds. 

These  plants  have  been  divided  up  into  2,436 
shipments,  and  they  have  sufficed  to  nourish  not 
only  the  people  who  have  returned  to  the  devas- 
tated villages  but  also  the  troops  at  the  front. 


A  nation  that  is  worn  out  and  bled  white  has 
no  colonies,  or,  if  she  has,  these  same  colonies  are 
likewise  bloodless  and  worn  out.  The  French 
colonial  empire  remains  intact  while  the  Grerman 
colonial  empire  has  disappeared  from  the  face  of 
the  earth.  The  support  the  colonies  brought  to 
the  mother  country  is  wonderful  and  deserves  a 
separate  study  on  its  own  account. 

Here  is  the  picture  the  celebrated  German  co- 
lonial empire  offers. 

In  1914  Germany  possessed  a  colonial  empire 
two  million  square  kilometers  in  area.  It  repre- 
sented approximately  four  times  the  area  of  the 
Grerman  Empire,  and  before  the  war  its  exports 
amounted  to  about  one  hundred  millions  of  francs 
108 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

or  twenty-five  millions  of  dollars.  There  were 
German  Southwest  Africa,  35,000  square  kilo- 
meters in  extent,  with  1,750  kilometers  of  rail- 
roads, with  its  copper  and  diamond  mines,  its 
metals  which  were  worth  commercially  thirty- 
seven  millions  of  marks  in  1911;  German  East 
Africa,  twice  as  big  as  the  German  Empire,  hav- 
ing 1,225  kilometers  of  railroads,  with  its  harbors 
where  nine  hundred  and  thirty-three  merchant 
ships  had  touched  in  1911 ;  German  New  Guinea, 
as  large  as  two-thirds  of  Prussia,  with  its  rich 
deposits  of  gold  and  coal,  its  maritime  commerce 
of  240,000  tons;  the  Samoan  Islands,  one  single 
port  of  which,  Apia,  was  visited  by  one  hundred 
and  ten  steamers  in  a  year;  Tsing-Tao  which,  in 
1911,  had  exported  32,500,000  marks'  worth  of 
merchandise,  whose  maritime  interest  was  repre- 
sented by  five  hundred  and  ninety  steamers  which 
carried  a  million  tons  of  freight.  All  that  has 
fallen  away;  all  that  is  actually  in  the  hands  of 
the  Allies. 

The  conquest  was  difficult;  it  was  finished  only 
in  1916.    An  order  of  the  day  of  General  Ajrrae- 
K)9 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

rich,  commander-in-chief  of  the  troops  which  con- 
quered Kameroon,  points  with  brief  eloquence  to 
some  of  the  difficulties  which  have  been  overcome : 

Officers,  Europeans  and  troops  who  are  natives 
of  Africa  and  Belgian  Congo. 

At  the  cost  of  hardship  and  unheard-of  efforts, 
jou  have  just  wrenched  from  the  Germans  one  of 
their  best  and  richest  colonies. 

Followed  without  a  minute's  respite  from  pos- 
session to  possession,  the  enemy  has  been  obliged 
to  abandon  the  last  bit  of  Kameroon.  For  eight- 
een months  you  have  experienced  the  torrid  heat 
of  the  days  and  the  cold  dampness  of  the  nights 
without  a  change,  you  have  been  under  the  tor- 
rential equatorial  rains,  you  have  traversed  im- 
passable forests  and  fetid  marshes,  you  have  with- 
out a  rest  taken  the  enemy's  positions  one  after 
another,  leaving  dead  in  each  one  a  number  of 
your  comrades.  Lacking  food  and  often  without 
munitions,  with  your  clothing  in  tatters,  you  have 
continued  your  glorious  march  without  complaint 
or  murmur,  until  you  have  attained  the  end  for 
which  you  set  out. 

In  this  conquest  France  played  a  large  part, 
just  as  was  the  case  in  the  conquest  of  Togoland, 
110 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

with  her  Senegalese  Tirailleurs,  the  famous  Tirail- 
leurs, so  much  decried  and  discussed  before  the 
war,  who  were  to  win  the  admiration  of  the  Eng- 
lish generals  under  whose  orders  they  fought. 

It  is  appropriate  to  cite  here  the  order  of  the 
day  of  the  commanding  officer  of  these  troops, 
because  it  shows  us  a  side  of  the  colonial  wars, 
about  which  little  has  been  said: 

An  English  detachment  under  the  command  of 
Lieutenant  Thomson  having  been  strongly  re- 
pulsed in  an  attack  on  the  post  at  Kamina,  was  re- 
inforced by  a  group  of  the  Senegalese  Tirailleurs 
made  up  of  a  sergeant,  two  corporals,  and  four- 
teen Blacks.  From  the  beginning  of  the  encounter 
at  eleven  o'clock,  the  mixed  detachment  found  it- 
self exposed  to  a  lively  fire  from  positions  that 
were  solidly  established  and  supported  by  mitrail- 
leuses. After  the  artillery  had  commenced  firing 
Lieutenant  Thomson,  considering  that  the  prep- 
aration was  sufficient,  bravely  led  his  troop  on  to 
the  attack.  This  courageous  initiative  failed  un- 
der a  severe  fire  from  fifty  meters  of  German 
trenches.  Lieutenant  Thomson  feU  mortally 
wounded.  However,  the  Senegalese  Tirailleurs, 
faithful  to  that  tradition  which  has  already  proved 
111 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

its  value  in  our  colonial  epic  by  such  famous  ex- 
ploits, refused  to  abandon  the  body  of  the  un- 
known leader  their  captain  had  given  them  and 
continued  to  hold  their  position.  When  the  fight 
was  over  and  the  enemy  was  in  flight,  the  bodies  of 
the  sergeant,  the  two  corporals,  and  of  nine  dead 
and  four  wounded  Tirailleurs  were  found  stretched 
out  alongside  the  English  officer  and  an  under  offi- 
cer who  was  also  English.  In  the  very  spot  where 
they  were  found,  their  tomb  surrounds  that  of 
Lieutenant  Thomson.  United  in  death,  they  still 
seem  to  watch  over  the  strange  officer — unknown 
to  them — for  whom  they  sacrificed  their  lives  be- 
cause their  leader  had  given  them  orders  to  do  so. 

Of  the  German  colonial  empire,  four  times  as 
big  as  the  fatherland,  not  a  spot  exists  that  is  not 
in  the  hands  of  the  Allies  today.  England  holds 
the  greater  part;  Japan  has  Tsing-Tao;  France 
a  considerable  part  of  the  African  possessions. 

Now  let  us  look  at  the  picture  the  French 
colonial  empire  offers. 

In  1914  France  ruled,  in  the  north  of  Africa, 
over  five  and  a  half  millions  of  natives  in  Algiers, 
two  millions  in  Tunis  and  four  millions  in  Mo- 
rocco. When  the  war  broke  out  there  was  not  a 
112 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

single  German  in  Morocco  who  was  not  certain 
that  the  natives  would  rise  in  revolt  against 
France. 

"Not  a  single  Frenchman,"  wrote,  in  peace 
times,  the  correspondent  of  the  Cologne  Gazette, 
"should  escape  alive."  The  German  Government 
was  convinced  of  the  fact  that  the  revolt  of  the 
inhabitants  and  the  massacre  of  the  French  would 
be  followed  by  an  appeal  of  aU  the  Moroccans 
for  the  intervention  of  the  Kaiser.  But  nothing 
of  the  sort  took  place.  In  Algiers  the  most  per- 
fect calm  continued  to  reign;  in  Tunis  there  was 
a  little  trouble  that  was  soon  suppressed;  in  Mo- 
rocco there  was  a  man,  diplomat  and  soldier  at 
the  same  time,  who  was  able  to  keep  peace  and 
hold  the  country  firm  to  France.  He  was  Gen- 
eral Lyautey. 

During  the  early  days  of  August,  1914,  the 
question  was  raised  whether  or  not  it  would  be 
necessary  to  abandon  the  outposts  in  the  interior 
of  Morocco  and  withdraw  toward  the  coast  cities. 
General  Lyautey  declared  that  he  would  abandon 
nothing  and  advised  the  French  Government  to 
113 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

that  effect.  He  sent  troops,  the  famous  Moroc- 
can regiments,  the  best  fighting  units  there  were 
in  1914,  to  the  battle  fields  of  Flanders,  receiving 
in  exchange  territorial  divisions  recruited  for  the 
most  part  from  the  Midi.  However,  with  these 
territorial  divisions  General  Lyautey  assured  the 
safety  of  all  that  portion  of  the  empire  that  was 
in  his  care ;  he  finished  the  operations  he  had  com- 
menced ;  he  maintained  French  prestige  and,  some 
months  later  on,  he  found  means  to  open  at  Casa- 
blanca a  Moroccan  exposition  which  showed  the 
marvelous  work  that  had  been  accomplished  in 
that  country — French  for  a  few  years  only. 

The  French  colonies  not  only  remained  incom- 
parably calm  and  peaceful  but  they  also  made  a 
marvelous  effort  in  coming  to  the  aid  of  the 
mother  country  both  with  men  and  with  their 
commerce. 

M.  Ernest  Roume,  Governor  General  of  the 
Colonies,  in  charge  at  the  war's  beginning  of  the 
government  of  Indo-China,  sent  to  France  more 
than  sixty  thousand  native  soldiers  and  military 
workers  in  eighteen  months.  They  were  recruited 
114 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

from  the  Asiatic  possessions  of  France.  In  Sene- 
gal, in  Soudan  and  in  Morocco  men  volunteered  by 
hundreds  of  thousands.  Moroccans,  Kabyles  and 
blacks  came  to  fight  by  the  side  of  the  French 
troops  on  the  Champagne  and  Lorraine  fronts. 

Besides,  North  Africa  largely  took  care  of  the 
feeding  of  France. 

In  1914  the  cereal  crop  had  been  notably  de- 
ficient in  Algiers  and  especially  in  Tunis.  How- 
ever, Algeria  did  not  hesitate  to  give  the  mother 
land  all  the  grain  she  asked  for;  50,000  quintals 
of  wheat  and  500,000  quintals  of  barley  and  oats 
were  thus  hastened  to  continental  France,  and  in 
addition,  40,000  quintals  of  wheat  went  to  Cor- 
sica and  130,000  to  Paris.  In  1915  the  colonies 
made  an  even  better  showing:  Algeria  furnished 
France  with  1,625,000  quintals  of  wheat,  918- 
000  quintals  of  barley,  and  77,000  quintals  of 
oats.  In  1916  this  figure  was  passed  and  the 
total  exports  amounted  to  four  million  quintals 
of  grains.  As  for  Morocco,  it  exported  in  1914, 
90,000  quintals  of  wheat  and  130,000  quintals  of 
barley;  in  1915  it  exported  200,000  quintals  of 
115 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

wheat  and  a  million  quintals  of  barley;  in  1916 
it  exported  more  than  two  million  quintals  of 
grains.  Add  to  that  the  900,000  sheep  Algeria 
furnished  for  the  French  commissariat  and  more 
than  40,000  sheep  furnished  to  the  English  com- 
missariat to  feed  the  Hindoo  troops  stationed  at 
Marseilles.  Then  add  in  the  cattle  exported  from 
Algeria  and  Morocco  by  the  thousands,  add  for 
Algeria  the  wines  and  the  vegetables,  and  for 
Tunis  the  olive  oil.  In  1916  the  confederation 
of  Algerian  winegrowers  gave  the  French  poilus 
fifty  thousand  hectoliters  of  wine. 

Everywhere  in  the  colonies  buildings  have  been 
built,  agriculture  has  continued,  public  works 
have  been  constructed.  In  the  midst  of  war  Al- 
geria has  opened  up  railroads;  Tunis  has  opened 
the  line  from  Sfax  to  Gabes;  Morocco  the  lines 
from  Casablanca  to  Fez  and  from  the  Algerian 
frontier  to  Taza. 

General  Lyautey  said,  "A  workshop  is  worth  a 
battalion  in  Morocco." 

Workshops  have  been  opened  everywhere. 
There  was  never  so  much  work  done.  The  colonial 
116 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

empire  was  never  more  prosperous,  more  active 
and  more  glorious. 

A  nation  that  is  worn  out  and  bled  white  has 
passed  the  stage  where  it  can  come  to  the  aid  of 
others.  In  her  death  agony,  she  has  no  more 
than  her  own  strength  to  last  her  during  the  last 
hours.  France  has  been  able  to  come  to  the  aid 
of  the  other  Allies.  She  has  lent  them  a  strong 
helping  hand,  she  has  been  able  to  save  them  from 
total  extinction.  French  troops  have  fought  and 
are  still  fighting  on  all  the  battle  fronts ;  in  Italy, 
the  Balkans,  Palestine  and  Central  Africa.  It  is 
almost  to  France  alone  and  to  France  especially 
that  the  salvage  of  the  remnant  of  the  Serbian 
Army  has  been  due. 

We  remember  what  happened  in  September, 
1915.  At  the  time  when  the  dual  offensive  was  at- 
tempted in  Artois  and  in  Champagne,  the  German 
Armies  invaded  Poland,  Volhynia,  Lithuania  and 
Courland,  delivered  Austrian  Galicia  and  com- 
menced to  submerge  Serbia  beneath  their  innu- 
merable legions.  Invaded  by  three  armies,  the 
117 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

German,  Austrian  and  Bulgarian,  all  of  them 
amply  supplied  with  heavy  artillery  and  asphixi- 
ating  gas,  poor  little  Serbia  was  doomed  before- 
hand. But,  tenacious  to  the  end,  her  heroic  de- 
fenders preferred  to  leave  their  country  rather 
than  submit  to  a  hated  yoke.  Step  by  step  the 
Serbians,  always  facing  the  enemy,  retreated  to 
the  sea.  It  was  a  terrible  tragedy.  Their  retreat 
will  remain  a  matter  of  legend,  like  that  of  the 
Ten  Thousand  under  Xenophon.  As  they  re- 
treated, the  Serbians  called,  in  their  despair,  for 
help. 

Who  went  to  Serbia's  aid.'*  It  was  not  Russia, 
whose  armies  were  quite  worn  out.  It  was  not 
England,  who  feared  an  attack  on  Egypt  and  who 
was  still  fighting  at  the  Dardanelles.  It  was  not 
Italy,  whose  special  efforts  were  directed  towards 
preventing  the  junction  of  Austria  with  Greece, 
and  who  was  satisfied  with  establishing  herself 
at  Valona  and  thus  driving  a  wedge  between  her 
two  rivals  on  the  Adriatic  coast. 

But  France,  France  who  is  represented  as  worn 
118 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

out  and  bled  white,  heard  Serbia's  call  for  help 
and  decided  to  respond  to  it. 

Supplies  were  first  landed  at  San  Giovanni  di 
Medua  and  Antivari  in  the  smaller  French  boats. 
But  it  was  soon  evident  that  these  supplies  would 
be  insufficient  and  that  the  Serbs  could  not  main- 
tain their  positions  in  the  Adriatic  ports  even 
with  French  help  from  the  sea.  The  complete 
evacuation  of  an  entire  army,  piece  by  piece,  had 
to  be  undertaken.  The  transporting  of  entire 
Serbia  beyond  the  seas,  to  another  country,  had 
to  be  considered.  Where  were  they  to  go  ?  Where 
were  the  thousands  of  worn  out  soldiers,  of  sick 
and  wounded  men,  to  be  transported? 

Once  again  France  answered.  France  held 
Tunis,  France  held  Bizerta.  Tunis  and  Bizerta 
would  shield  temporarily  the  remains  of  Serbia. 
From  the  end  of  November,  1915,  the  smaller 
French  ships,  torpedo  boats,  trawlers  and  trans- 
ports made  the  trip  from  Durazzo  to  San  Gio- 
vanni di  Medua  to  embark  the  Serbian  Army. 
Great  steamers,  such  as  the  Natal,  Smai,  and 
Armenie,  and  a  flotilla  of  armored  cruisers  fol- 
119 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

lowed  them.  Thirteen  thousand  men  were  trans- 
ported in  this  fashion. 

But  the  situation  grew  worse.  The  Serbs  along 
the  seacoasts  were  pressed  harder  and  harder  by 
the  Austrians  and  by  Albanian  bands.  Besides, 
the  transporting  to  Tunis  was  too  slow  when  the 
progress  of  the  enemy  was  considered.  Finally 
the  appearance  of  typhus  and  cholera  rendered 
more  dangerous  the  removal  of  the  unfortunate 
troops  to  a  great  distance.  A  new  plan  was  ar- 
ranged. The  remaining  Serbs  were  to  be  trans- 
ported not  into  Tunis,  which  was  so  far  away,  but 
to  a  land  as  near  as  possible  to  the  scene  of  dis- 
aster. Corfu  was  there;  Corfu,  only  sixty  miles 
away  from  the  farthest  point  of  debarkation; 
Corfu,  whose  climate  was  marvelously  suited  to 
the  recovery  of  sick  men;  Corfu  which  oflTered  a 
very  safe  harbor.  It  was  decided  to  occupy 
Corfu,  prepare  the  island,  transport  the  entire 
Serbian  Army  thither  and  assure  that  this  army 
would  be  built  up  there.  And  France  was  charged 
with  carrying  out  this  operation. 

On  the  seventh  of  January,  1916,  the  first 
120 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

French  organization  of  ten  trawlers  set  out  from 
Malta  to  make  a  preliminary  reconnoissance 
around  Corfu,  to  drag  for  mines  and  to  clear  out 
the  submarines.  A  second  flotilla  followed  it 
forty-eight  hours  later.  On  the  eighth  of  Janu- 
ary the  armored  cruisers  Edgar  QvMiety  Wal- 
deck-Rotbssecm,  Ernest  RenaUy  J  vies  Ferry  and 
five  torpedo  boats,  which  were  located  at  Bizer- 
ta,  received  orders  to  embark  a  battalion  of  Alpine 
chasseurs  with  their  arms,  baggage  and  mules 
and  to  take  up  their  positions  to  be  ready  at  the 
first  signal 

On  the  night  of  the  tenth,  the  French  consul 
at  Corfu  woke  up  the  Greek  prefect  in  order  to 
iannounce  to  him  the  imminent  arrival  of  our 
squadron  and  what  it  was  going  to  do.  After 
he  had  received  the  formal  protest  of  this  func- 
tionary, he  went  down  to  the  port,  where  there 
wfiw  no  longer  any  doubt  in  anyone's  mind  of 
what  was  going  to  happen.  With  him  went  guides 
and  automobiles  to  finish  everything  quickly  be- 
fore the  Germans  could  offer  any  opposition. 
Some  minutes  later,  on  time  at  the  rendezvous 
121 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

agreed  upon,  the  French  cruisers  came  into  the 
harbor  and  immediately  disembarked  their  con- 
tingent of  Alpine  Chasseurs.  Before  daybreak 
the  principal  vantage  points  as  well  as  the  most 
important  positions  on  the  island  were  occupied. 
Suspected  persons  were  seized  in  their  beds,  a 
doubtful  post  of  T.  S.  F.  was  seized  also.  Corfu, 
which  went  to  sleep  half  German,  woke  up  entirely 
French  to  the  tune  of  the  martial  music  that  was 
to  inform  the  inhabitants  of  the  little  change  that 
had  taken  place  over  night. 

The  question  remained  of  AchiUeion,  the  prop- 
erty of  William  of  Germany,  which  was  about  nine 
miles  from  the  city.  If  Achilleion  had  been  a 
French  property  and  German  soldiers  had  paid 
a  visit,  what  pillage,  what  defilement,  what  orgies 
there  would  have  been! 

But  Achilleion  was  a  German  property,  and  the 
French  have  a  method  of  procedure  that  is  pecu- 
liarly their  own.  This  is  what  happened,  ac- 
cording to  the  narrative  of  a  young  naval  officer 
who  was  on  the  spot : 

At  four  o^clock  in  the  morning  an  automobile 
122 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

set  out  from  the  dock,  carrying  a  squad  of  twelve 
marine  fusilliers  under  the  command  of  one  of  the 
ship's  lieutenants.  A  half  hour  later  he  presented 
himself  at  the  gate  of  the  palace  and  demanded 
that  he  be  admitted.  There  was  no  response.  He 
was  insistent.  Finally  a  door  opened  and  an 
angry  voice  cried  out  in  the  darkness :  "This  isn't 
the  time  for  visitors."  For  the  owner,  who  found 
that  there  are  no  such  things  as  small  profits, 
permitted  a  visit  for  the  sum  of  two  francs  per  per- 
son. Surprised,  the  occupant  of  the  palace  sub- 
mitted, and  our  detachment  entered  AchiUeion, 
whose  occupants  it  assembled^ — the  watchman  and 
two  red-haired  chambermaids — en  deshabille,  also 
a  mechanic  and  an  entomologist  who  wore  spec- 
tacles. Pale  with  fear,  the  latter  threw  himself  on 
his  knees  before  the  'officer.  "If  I  must  die,  I  ask 
that  it  may  be  here,"  said  he.  He  was  left  in 
peace.  A  company  of  the  Chasseurs  arrived  and 
the  marines,  with  their  lanterns  in  their  hands, 
went  back  to  the  ships.  The  Tricolor  floated  over 
tlie  Kaiser's  villa,  which  was  to  become  a  hospital 
for  the  Serbs. 

At  eleven  o'clock  in  the  morning  it  was  all  over, 
and  the  French  cruisers  put  out  to  sea  on  the  re- 
turn trip  to  Bizerta. 

But  the  easiest  thing  had  been  done.  The  most 
123 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

difficult  was  about  to  begin.  It  was  not  only  a 
question  of  occupying  Corfu;  it  was  also  a  mat- 
ter of  arranging  to  receive  a  worn-out  and  deci- 
mated army.  It  was  a  difficult  task  that  many 
would  have  judged  out  of  the  question.  Every- 
thing was  lacking;  there  was  nothing  on  hand. 

A  writer  on  naval  matters,  who  has  been  the 
historian  of  the  French  Navy  in  this  war,  M.  Emile 
Vedel,  has  painted  in  the  pages  of  Illustration 
an  unheard-of  and  unique  picture  of  what  this 
preparation  of  Corfu  consisted: 

It  was  nothing  less  than  a  question  of  improvis- 
ing all  means  that  were  necessary  for  disembark- 
ing; gangways,  landing  stairs,  roads  to  and  from 
various  points  on  the  island  where  the  expected 
troops  were  to  be  concentrated;  of  uniting  and 
collecting  together  the  numerous  boats — large  and 
small — eighteen  tugs  (among  them  the  Marsouin, 
Rove,  Ishevl,  MarseiUais  14,  Audacieux,  Requm), 
twenty-seven  smaller  boats,  nine  barges,  and  a 
dozen  mahonnes  and  small  craft  of  all  sizes,  with- 
out counting  the  supply  ships,  floating  tanks,  un- 
loading cranes  and  so  forth — ^which  the  rapid  un- 
loading and  revictualing  of  the  new  arrivals  de- 
124 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

manded;  of  Isolating  the  sick  who  were  infected 
with  typhus  and  cholera ;  in  a  word,  of  putting  on 
their  feet  the  diverse  offices  that  come  under  the 
heading  of  direction  of  the  port,  all  the  machinery 
of  which  was  yet  to  be  created.  At  the  same  time 
it  was  necessary  to  maintain  and  repair  the  booms 
of  the  harbor,  to  test  the  channels,  make  arrange- 
ments concerning  piloting,  anchorage,  and  new 
supplies  of  water,  provisions  and  coal  for  the  al- 
ways hurried  transports  which  arrived,  unloaded 
and  sailed  away  at  all  hours  of  the  day  and  night ; 
constantly  to  clear  out  and  drag  the  waters  near 
the  island;  establish  observation  posts  around  it, 
station  batteries  in  suitable  positions,  and  finally 
to  protect  the  channels  around  Corfu  and  the  Al- 
banian coast,  in  which  the  English  aided  us  effec- 
tively by  sending  a  hundred  drifters  (a  sort  of 
little  fishing  boat  which  we  call  "cordiers"  at 
Boulogne),  which,  beating  against  the  wind  under 
full  sail,  dragged  a  cable  a  thousand  meters  long 
to  snare  submarines.  Thanks  to  a  pair  of  float- 
ing docks,  which  were  placed  between  the  extreme 
end  of  Corfu  and  the  neighboring  coast,  a  distance 
of  but  two  or  three  kilometers,  our  vessels  were 
soon  in  position,  in  a  line  thirty  miles  in  length 
so  that  they  could  execute  all  the  movements 
necessary  for  the  landing  of  the  Serbs  and  also 
have  gun  drill,  launch  torpedoes  and  sea  planes, 
125 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

and  perform  the  rest  of  the  maneuvers  that  are 
indispensable. 

Furthermore,  fresh  water  in  sufficient  quanti- 
ties had  to  be  procured.  For  if  the  springs  on  the 
island  could  supply  eighty  thousand  inhabitants, 
they  now  had  to  triple  their  output  and  give  out 
a  far  greater  supply  to  meet  the  demand  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty  thousand  more  mouths.  Every 
bit  of  flour  had  to  come  from  outside,  from  Italy, 
France  or  England  since  Corfu  has  very  few  re- 
sources and  we  did  not  wish  to  encounter  the  hos- 
tility of  a  population  to  which  it  was  necessary 
for  us  to  show  firmness  more  than  once.  The  most 
recalcitrant  were  forced  to  give  in,  not  without 
ceasing  to  rob  us  very  much  in  the  dealings  they 
had  with  us.  Oranges  went  up  to  ten  francs  a 
dozen,  and  small  shopkeepers  realized  fortunes  by 
doing  money  changing  at  fantastic  rates. 

And  all  that  will  furnish  only  a  very  incomplete 
idea  of  the  innumerable  obligations  the  aquatic 
anthill,  from  an  industrial  and  military  stand- 
point, which  is  called  a  naval  base,  has  to  meet. 

On  the  ninth  of  January,  1916,  the  situation 
of  the  Serbian  Army  was  precisely  as  foUows : 
In  the  neighborhood  of  San  Giovanni  di  Medua 
there  were  twelve  hundred  officers,  twenty-six 
thousand  foot  soldiers,  seven  thousand  horses  and 
126 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

two  thousand  cattle ;  at  Durazzo  there  were  thirty- 
six  hundred  officers,  sixty-nine  thousand  soldiers, 
twenty  thousand  horses  and  four  thousand  cat- 
tle; on  the  roads  that  led  to  Valona  some  fifty 
thousand  men  including  officers,  two  thousand 
horses  and  three  hundred  cattle. 

In  these  three  principal  groups  were  forty-one 
field  pieces,  the  glorious  remainder  of  the  Serbian 
artillery. 

Add  to  that  twenty-two  thousand  Austrian 
prisoners  whom  the  Serbs  carried  along  with  them 
in  their  exodus  towards  the  coast  and  also  the 
pitiable  troop  of  refugees,  sick  men,  old  men, 
women,  children  who,  desiring  at  any  cost  to  es- 
cape slavery  and  servitude,  followed  the  retreat- 
ing army. 

The  evacuation  of  this  indomitable  people  was 
made  at  San  Giovanni  di  Medua.  The  soldiers 
were  sent  to  Corfu.  The  civilians  were  sent  to 
Algiers  and  Tunis,  the  Austrian  prisoners  to 
Sardinia,  But  where  were  the  typhoid  and  the 
cholera  patients  to  be  transported.?  No  one 
wanted  them;  and  in  this  stampede  of  a  people, 
127 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

cholera  and  typhus  had  made  their  appearance 
and  spread  with  alarming  rapidity.  A  certain 
number  of  cholera  patients  had  been  taken  to 
Brindisi;  and  everyone,  naturally,  refused  to  take 
them  in. 

Since  this  was  the  case,  a  French  trawler,  the 
Verdwn,  commanded  by  Lieutenant  d'Aubarede, 
brought  the  sick  to  Corfu.  And,  as  M.  Emile 
Vedel  tells  it,  this  was  perhaps  one  of  the  most 
beautiful  episodes  of  our  navy's  activity,  for 
there  are  few  deaths  as  hideous  as  that  to  which 
they  exposed  themselves  in  taking  in  their  arms 
poor  beings  touched  with  a  malady  essentially  so 
contagious,  and  so  dirty  and  covered  with  vermin 
that  they  made  everyone  shudder.  With  precau- 
tion and  care  that  brothers  do  not  always  have 
for  their  own  brothers,  these  near-corpses  were 
taken  to  Corfu,  where  doctors  and  nurses  from 
the  French  Navy  saved  some  of  them  and  made 
the  end  more  easy  for  the  rest. 

In  twenty-two  days  everything  was  almost  over. 
The  troops  at  San  Giovanni  and  Valona  and  Du- 
razzo  had  been  evacuated,  as  had  the  Austrian 
128 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

prisoners.  All  the  money  of  the  Serbian  treasury 
had  been  transported  to  Marseilles  in  the  cruiser 
Ernest  Renan.  It  amounted  to  about  eight  hun- 
dred million  francs. 

However,  on  the  twentieth  of  January,  about 
two  thousand  men  still  remained  at  San  Giovanni 
di  Medua.  There  were  also  a  certain  number  of 
field  pieces.  After  so  many  men  and  guns  had 
been  saved,  were  these  to  be  abandoned?  No. 
Everything  must  be  saved.  The  last  man  must 
be  saved  and  the  last  gun  must  be  saved,  whatever 
may  be  the  risk,  the  fatigue  and  the  hard  work. 

On  the  morning  of  the  twentieth  of  January, 
Captain  Cacqueray,  commanding  the  French  naval 
forces,  had  two  young  naval  officers  of  the  French 
fleet  come  aboard  his  ship,  the  MarceaiL,  Ensigns 
Couillaud  and  Auge,  who  commanded  the  little 
trawlers  Petrel  and  Marie-Rose.  He  ordered  them 
to  return  once  more  to  San  Giovanni  and  bring 
back  with  them  aU  they  could. 

"You  must  succeed  and  you  will  succeed,"  Cap- 
tain Cacqueray  said  simply. 

Some  few  minutes  later  the  two  trawlers  were 
129 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

out  in  the  Adriatic,  headed  for  San  Giovanni, 
Here  we  must  quote  Ensign  Auge's  words.  He 
commanded  the  Marie-Rose^  and  we  must  be  satis- 
fied with  citing  from  the  eloquent  brevity  of  the 
ship's  log: 

From  the  peaceful  docks  of  Brindisi,  we  passed 
through  the  winding  channel  of  the  outer  port  and 
then  out  of  the  harbor,  gliding  between  the  buoys. 
Then  the  mine  fields  were  to  be  traversed,  although 
the  night  was  black  and  foggy.  As  we  approached 
the  Albanian  coast  the  wind  freshened,  and  in  a 
veritable  tempest,  with  hail  and  icy  rain  we  en- 
tered the  Gulf  of  Drin,  whose  water  is  very  turbid. 
More  watchful  than  ever,  since  submarines  had 
been  sighted  in  the  neighborhood,  we  finally  ar- 
rived at  Medua.  Almost  blocked  off  by  the  sand 
bars,  the  little  harbor  was  further  encumbered  by 
a  dozen  wrecks,  boats  which  the  Austrians  had 
sunk.  The  question  was  where  to  pass  through 
this  mess,  on  the  top  of  the  water,  with  masts  and 
spars  pointing  every  way.  After  having  rounded 
the  line  of  mines  and  the  Briridisi,  an  Italian  ves- 
sel that  had  struck  a  mine  some  days  before,  we 
made  the  port.  Ten  houses  and  a  wretched  wharf 
on  worm-eaten  piling  at  the  end  of  a  funnel  of 
mountains  with  terrible  rocks  is  all  there  is  of 
Medua. 

130 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

An  empty  sailboat  was  moored  to  the  end  of 
the  wharf,  which  facilitated  our  operations.  The 
Petrel,  which  was  of  lighter  draft  than  my  boat, 
managed  to  get  alongside  and,  by  vigorous  efforts, 
we  were  able  to  join  her.  Ashore  there  were  sol- 
diers in  muddy  clothes  and  worn-out  shoes.  The 
gangway  and  the  sailboat  were  soon  filled  by  a 
chilly  cold  wind,  which  tried  to  blow  it  offshore  and 
which  nothing  could  restrain.  It  was  impossible 
to  locate  any  responsible  person  and  out  of  the 
question  to  make  one's  self  understood.  Everyone 
thought  only  of  escaping  from  that  Hell.  Finally 
some  Serbian  officers  came  up  who  succeeded 
somewhat  in  controlling  their  impatient  troops. 
They  made  us  bring  up  the  first  cannon,  which  was 
pushed  over  the  shaking  planks  of  the  wharf.  With 
great  effort  and  by  the  use  of  triple  tackles  the 
gun  was  got  aboard  the  Petrel,  and  the  carriage 
and  wheels  on  the  Marie-Rose,  whose  hatch  was 
wider.  The  beginning  was  slow,  but,  after  the 
second  cannon,  the  embarking  went  along 
smoothly. 

There  was  not  enough  time.  Everyone 
stamped  in  the  mud.  With  the  completely  washed 
out  Serbian  uniforms  mixed  the  briUiant  colors 
of  those  of  the  Montenegrin  guard.  Seated  on  a 
stone.  King  Nicholas  sat  stoically  in  the  falling 
rain,  awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  Italian  torpedo 
131 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

boat  that  was  to  place  itself  under  his  orders. 
Soldiers  from  the  French  mission  arrived  and  did 
police  duty.  The  radio-operators  from  the  Ital- 
ian post  arrived  and  put  their  baggage  on  board. 
An  officer  of  the  Serbian  Army  was  there  with  all 
the  state  archives,  A  crowd  of  people  instinctive- 
ly pressed  towards  us  and  got  mixed  up  with  the 
soldiers  who  were  supposed  to  keep  order.  In 
spite  of  the  tempest  which  thwarted  everything, 
we  managed  to  embark  eighteen  .75  guns  and  three 
100  howitzers,  as  well  as  a  hundred  cases  of  pro- 
jectiles. The  weather  grew  more  dreadful,  with 
hail  stones  in  the  icy  rain.  Blows  were  necessary 
to  prevent  the  crowding  aboard  of  that  mob  of 
people  whom  neither  shouts  nor  threats  could 
stop.  We  allowed  as  many  as  possible  to  embark 
— about  a  hundred  on  the  Petrel  and  twice  as 
many  with  us — Serbs,  Montenegrins  and  Allies, 
of  all  classes  and  conditions,  and,  despairingly  we 
shoved  off  to  stop  the  crowd  that  remained.  We 
^ere  the  last  hope  of  these  poor  people — there  were 
nbout  fifteen  hundred  of  them,  whose  only  hope  now 
was  to  face  the  frightful  paths,  marshes  and  swol- 
len rivers  that  separated  them  from  Durazzo. 

Night  was  falling;  there  remained  only  time 
to  get  away.  Cases  of  preserves  were  quickly 
opened.  All  our  bread  and  biscuits  were  used, 
and    some   bowls    of   boiling  tea    comforted    our 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

guests.  But  leaving  the  harbor,  the  sea  grew 
heavier  and  torrents  of  spray  put  the  finishing 
touch  to  the  inextricable  disorder  that  prevailed 
aboard  ship.  The  storm  stayed  with  us  until  we 
made  Brindisi,  where  we  arrived  at  seven  o'clock  on 
the  morning  of  the  twenty-second.  When  Italy  was 
sighted,  the  tiredness  and  discouragement  dis- 
appeared as  if  by  magic.  Hand  clappings,  praise 
of  France,  promises  of  victory  and  of  revenge, 
and  absurd  efforts  to  disembark  everything  at 
once — passengers  and  material.  (Journal  of  En- 
sign Auge,  Commander  of  the  Marie-Rose,) 

Is  that  all  ?  No ;  it  is  not.  For  if  French  ef- 
fort is  limitless,  the  tonnage  of  the  trawlers  is 
not.  And,  in  spite  of  every  effort,  they  were  un- 
able to  get  everyone  aboard.  Down  there  in  the 
mud  at  Medua  some  Serbs  still  waited,  turning 
anxious  eyes  towards  the  high  seas  to  see  whether 
or  not  the  tricolor  would  appear  on  the  horizon. 
.  .  .  Well,  it  did  reappear,  for  France  never  gives 
up  the  fight.  The  French  motto  here,  as  every- 
where else,  was  "to  the  bitter  end."  On  the  twen- 
ty-fourth of  January  the  Petrel  and  the  Marie- 
Rose  started  on  the  final  trip.  Will  they  arrive 
in  time.''  Probably  not.  In  the  mountains  that 
133 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

surround  San  Giovanni  rifle  shots  and  the  rattle 
of  mitrailleuses  were  heard;  the  road  to  Ales  sic 
was  deserted,  the  beach  seemed  deserted,  Medua 
harbor  was  covered  with  wreckage  of  all  sorts,  ren- 
dering navigation  impossible.  However,  the  tiny 
craft  entered  the  harbor  and  approached  the 
shore.  Finally  they  saw  some  Serbs  there.  The 
news  was  as  disturbing  as  possible.  The  Aus- 
trians  were  only  a  few  kilometers  off.  There  was 
fighting  on  the  outskirts  of  the  town.  The  last 
able-bodied  Serbs  struggled  manfully  to  hold  off 
the  Austrian  advance  guard,  which  pressed  them 
hard.  Not  a  minute  was  to  be  lost  if  a  last  sal- 
vage was  to  be  made. 

After  a  brief  consultation,  the  two  young  com- 
manders decided  to  take  off  everyone  in  their  old 
boats,  aided  by  a  huge  lighter  which  they  took 
in  tow.  A  grave  responsibility  if  the  weather 
did  not  hold;  but  the  man  who  risks  nothing  will 
gain  nothing. 

They  worked  with  feverish  haste.  The  hope  of 
not  being  abandoned  gave  wings  to  the  weak.  By 
four  o^clock  in  the  afternoon  everything  was  prac- 
134 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

tically  ready  .  .  .  four  "seventy-fives,"  ten  artil- 
lery caissons,  two  radio  outfits,  a  thousand  new 
rifles,  hundreds  of  cases  of  shells,  cartridges  and 
grenades  and  likewise  large  quantities  of  harness 
were  loaded  on  the  trawlers.  All  the  men  who  were 
in  the  town,  its  outskirts  or  on  the  beachr  were  as- 
sembled and  embarked  on  the  boats.  Not  one 
was  left  behind.  This  time,  safe  from  the  rifles 
in  the  distant  mountains,  everyone  was  saved. 

At  four-fifty  in  the  afternoon  [writes  Ensign 
Auge]  our  little  boats  cleared  the  harbor  for  the 
last  time  and  made  the  open  sea.  Suddenly  we 
see  a  trail  of  foam  hastening  on  us  with  a  mad 
rush.  It  started  three  or  four  hundred  meters  off 
on  our  right.  There  is  a  lightning  flash  and  we 
see  the  torpedo  cross  our  bows,  too  low,  fortu- 
nately. A  submarine  has  tried  to  attack  us  but 
has  missed.  We  describe  a  great  circle  in  order 
to  avoid  a  second  attack.  Fortunately  night  falls 
to  end  the  chase,  and  we  make  for  the  Italian 
coast.  Although  the  sea  is  smooth,  the  third  boat 
is  lurching  terribly.  About  midnight  I  hear  ter- 
rible cries  from  this  boat.  It  is  dark  as  pitch  and 
impossible  to  make  out  anything  in  the  darkness. 
The  cries  continue:  sparks  burst  forth.  Some- 
thing IB  thrown  into  the  sea.  It  is  impossible  to 
135 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

know  what  is  happening.  So  much  the  worse. 
The  most  dangerous  thing  would  be  to  stop.  Let 
us  go  on. 

They  went  on  and  finally  arrived  in  sight  of 
Italy  the  next  morning.  The  incident  of  the  night 
before  had  been  a  little  thing  which  had  started  a 
panic  on  board  the  boat.  Little  by  little  the  roofs 
and  towers  of  Brindisi  appeared  in  the  distance. 
The  entire  squadron  of  Allied  ships  was  there, 
ranged  in  battle  formation.  When  they  saw  the 
two  little  boats  which  were  bringing  in  the  last 
Serbs  with  their  last  guns,  they  rendered  military 
honors  to  the  heroic  saviors,  the  crews  cheering 
and  the  colors  saluting.  Supreme  and  un- 
precedented homage  was  rendered  two  nations: 
France  and  Serbia. 

•         •         •         •         •         •         • 

In  January,  1918,  M.  Vesnitch,  Serbian  Minis- 
ter to  France,  on  a  mission  to  the  United  States, 
during  an  after-dinner  speech,  in  a  voice  that  did 
not  conceal  his  emotion  and  with  a  different  man- 
ner from  his  usual  downcast  one,  told  some  of  the 
details  of  this  Passion.  And  he  added: 
136 


SUFFERING  BUT  NOT  BLED  WHITE 

"We  are  grateful  to  everyone,  but  Serbia's 
heart  will  i^emain  attached  through  all  centuries 
to  come  to  France." 

I  repeat  these  words,  which  are  France's  sweet- 
est reward,  because  they  attest  in  history  what 
France,  the  nation  "worn  out  and  bled  white" 
has  done  to  save  and  succor  her  little  ally. 

Finally  let  me  say  that  the  men  are  wrong  who 
believe  France  is  without  strength  and  resources. 
Beneath  her  torn  garments,  in  rags,  under  flesh 
that  is  cruelly  bruised,  there  beats  a  virile  heart 
which  fights  on  and  on.  And  there  is  young,  red 
blood  which  still  flows  and  is  always  ready  to  flow 
for  the  immortal  principles  of  Liberty,  Justice 
and  Humanity, 


IV 

THE  WAE  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

A  FRENCH  statesman,  Mr.  Louis  Barthou, 
has  summed  up  the  War  aims  of  France 
in  the  three  words:    "Restitution,  Rep- 
aration, Guarantees." 

Restitution  means  the  surrender  of  all  occu- 
pied territories,  of  the  territories  occupied  by 
force  during  forty-seven  months,  as  well  as  the 
territories  occupied  by  force  during  forty-seven 
years.  Between  the  five  departments  forming 
Flanders-Argonne  and  the  five  departments  form- 
ing Alsace-Lorraine,  France  is  unable  to  make 
any  distinction,  France  wants  Metz  back  on  the 
same  ground  upon  which  she  wants  Lille  back.  If 
Germany  is  to  keep  Metz  she  might  as  well  keep 
Lille.  Her  claim  to  Strasbourg  is  not  better  than 
her  claim  to  Cambrai. 

138 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

And  this  is  a  thing  which  "the  man  in  the  street" 
fails  sometimes  to  understand.  He  says:  "Yes, 
we  know,  Alsace-Lorraine  was  taken  from  France 
forty-seven  years  ago  by  violence,  without  the  peo- 
ple of  the  occupied  territories  being  consulted. 
But  how  did  France  acquire  Alsace-Lorraine  in 
previous  times?  Was  it  not  also  by  force  after 
successful  wars?  Is  it  not  a  fact  that  Alsace- 
Lorraine,  in  days  of  yore,  belonged  to  Germany, 
and  that,  historically,  Alsace  is  a  German  land?" 

No,  it  is  precisely  not  a  fact.  It  is  the  con- 
trary of  a  fact  and  of  truth.  And  this  must 
be  made  clear,  once  for  all. 

When  France  demands  Alsace-Lorraine,  she 
does  not  do  so  because  she  will  have  some  more 
departments  in  her  geographical  configuration, 
but  because  these  territories  belonged  to  France 
during  centuries  and  centuries,  because  they  were 
taken  from  France  by  force  forty-seven  years 
ago,  because  the  people  of  these  territories  not 
only  were  never  consulted,  but  also  protested 
against  Prussian  domination — ^because,  in  a  word, 
it  is  a  question  of  right. 

139 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

In  a  speech,  which  he  delivered  on  the  ^4ith.  of 
January,  1918,  before  the  Reichstag,  Count  von 
Hertling,  the  Imperial  German  Chancellor,  ex- 
pressed himself  as  follows : 

Alsace-Lorraine  comprises,  as  is  known,  for 
the  most  part  purely  German  regions  which  by  a 
century  long  of  violence  and  illegality  were  sev- 
ered from  the  German  Empire,  until  finally  in  1779 
the  French  Revolution  swallowed  up  the  last 
remnant.  Alsace  and  Lorraine  then  became 
French  provinces.  When  in  the  war  of  1870,  we 
demanded  back  the  district  which  had  been  crim- 
inally wrested  from  us,  that  was  not  a  conquest  of 
foreign  territory  but,  rightly  and  properly  speak- 
ing, what  today  is  called  disannexation. 

It  is  doubtful  that  Count  von  Hertling  will 
ever  leave  in  history  the  memory  of  a  great  Chan- 
cellor; but,  if  he  does,  it  will  be  no  doubt  in  the 
History  of  Ignorance  and  Falsehood.  Never  has 
a  statesman  in  so  few  words  uttered  with  such 
impudence  so  many  untruths! 

Historically  speaking,  there  are  in  Alsace-Lor- 
raine three  parts:  there  is  Lorraine,  there  is  Al- 
140 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

sace,  and  there  is  the  southern  part  of  Alsace  in- 
cluding the  town  of  Mulhouse. 

As  regards  the  town  of  Mulhouse,  the  question 
is  most  simple  and  clear.  The  town  never,  at  any 
time,  belonged  to  Germany  or  to  the  Germans.  It 
belonged  to  Switzerland  and,  at  the  end  of  the 
18th  century,  during  the  French  revolution,  the 
town,  after  a  referendum,  decided  to  become 
French.  A  delegation  was  sent  to  Paris,  to  the 
French  Parliament,  then  called  the  Conseil  des 
Cinq-CentSy  and  the  delegation  expressed  publicly, 
officially,  the  desire  of  Mulhouse  to  be  part  of  the 
French  territory.  There  was  a  deliberation,  and 
unanimously  the  Conseil  des  Cmq-Cents  voted  a 
motion  couched  in  the  following  terms:  ^^The 
French  Republic  accepts  the  vow  of  the  citizens 
of  Mvlhouse.'''* 

A  few  weeks  later  the  French  authorities,  among 
scenes  of  unparalleled  enthusiasm,  made  their  en- 
try into  the  town,  and  the  flag  of  Mulhouse  was 
wrapped  up  in  a  tricolor  box  bearing  the  inscrip- 
tion: "The  Republic  of  Mulhouse  rests  in  the 
bosom  of  the  French  Republic.'* 
141 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

Alsaoe — the  rest  of  Alsace — became  French 
in  1648,  more  than  two  centuries  before  the  war 
of  1870.  It  became  French  according  to  a  treaty. 
The  treaty  was  signed  by  the  Austrian  Emperor, 
because  Alsace  belonged  to  the  Austrian  Imperial 
Family.  And  it  is  not  without  interest  to  quote 
an  article  (article  75)  of  the  treaty: 

The  Emperor  cedes  to  the  King  of  France  for- 
ever, in  perpetuumy  without  any  reserve,  with  full 
jurisdiction  and  sovereignty,  all  the  Alsatian  ter- 
ritory. The  Austrian  Emperor  gives  it  to  the 
King  of  France  in  such  a  way  that  no  other  Em- 
peror, in  the  future,  will  ever  have  any  power  in 
any  time  to  affirm  any  right  on  these  territories. 

When  today  one  reads  that  treaty,  one  has  the 
impression  that  more  than  two  centuries  ago  the 
Austrian  Emperor  had  already  a  sort  of  appre- 
hension that  later  on  another  Emperor  would  in- 
terfere in  the  matter  and  create  mischief! 

Fifty-three  years  after  that  treaty,  the  Prus- 
sians, who  dislike  seeing  anything  in  some  one's 
else  possession,  tried  to  recover  Alsace.  Their 
own  ambassador  tried  to  dissuade  them,  and  in 
142 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

1701  Count  Schmettau,  ambassador  of  Prussia  in 
Paris,  wrote  to  his  king: 

**We  ccmnot  take  Alsace,  because  it  is  well 
Jcnozsm  that  her  inhabitants  are  more  French  than 
the  Parisians,  .  .  ." 

Could  anything  answer  better  the  affirmation 
that  "Alsatians  are  of  German  tendency?" 

Lorraine  became  French  in  1552,  more  than 
three  centuries  before  the  war  of  1870.  Lorraine 
became  French  not  after  a  war  and  as  the  result 
of  a  conquest,  but  according  to  a  treaty  signed 
by  all  the  Protestant  Princes  of  Germany,  in 
which  we  find  the  following  sentence,  which  is 
really  worthy  of  meditation:  "We  find  just  that 
the  King  of  France,  as  promptly  as  possible, 
takes  possession  of  the  towns  of  Tout,  Metz, 
and  VerduM,  where  the  German  language  has  never 
been  used"  So  that  the  Germans  themselves  put 
on  the  same  line  the  towns  of  Metz,  Toul,  and  Ver- 
dun, and  recognized  that  the  town  of  Metz  was 
not  German. 

All  this  is  extremely  simple  and  clear.  What 
happened  several  centuries  later  is  equally  clear. 
143 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

When,  in  1871,  on  February  16th,  the  deputies 
of  Alsace-Lorraine  learned  that  their  provinces 
would  be  given  up  to  Germany,  they  assembled, 
and  in  an  historical  document  which  was  signed 
by  all  of  them — there  were  thirty-six — they  pro- 
tested in  the  following  terms: 

Alsace  and  Lorraine  cannot  be  alienated.  To- 
day, before  the  whole  world,  they  proclaim  that 
they  want  to  remain  French.  Europe  cannot 
allow  or  ratify  the  annexation  of  Alsace  and  Lor- 
raine. Europe  cannot  allow  a  people  to  be  seized 
like  a  flock  of  sheep.  Europe  cannot  remain  deaf 
to  the  protest  of  a  whole  population.  Therefore, 
we  declare  in  the  name  of  our  population,  in  the 
name  of  our  children  and  of  our  descendants,  that 
we  are  considering  any  treaty  which  gives  us  up 
to  a  foreign  power  as  a  treaty  null  and  void, 
and  we  will  eternally  revindicate  the  right  of  dis- 
posing of  ourselves  and  of  remaining  French. 

And,  three  years  later,  in  January,  1874,  when 
for  the  first  time  Alsace  and  Lorraine  had  to  elect 
deputies,  they  reiterated  the  same  protest.  They 
elected  fifteen  new  deputies ;  some  were  Protes- 
tants, some  were  Catholics,  one  of  them  was  the 
144 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

Bishop  of  Strasbourg,  but  they  unanimously 
signed  a  declaration  which  was  read  at  the  Tribune 
of  the  German  Reichstag.  The  declaration  was 
the  following: 

In  the  name  of  all  the  people  of  Alsace-Lor- 
raine, we  protest  against  the  abuse  of  force  of 
which  our  country  is  a  victim.  .  .  .  Citizens  hav- 
ing a  soul  and  an  intelligence  are  not  mere  goods 
that  may  be  sold,  or  with  which  you  may  trade. 

The  contract  which  annexed  us  to  Germany  is 
null  and  void.  A  contract  is  only  valid  when  the 
two  contractants  had  an  entire  freedom  to  sign  it. 
France  was  not  free  when  she  signed  such  a  con- 
tract. Therefore  our  electors  want  us  to  say 
that  we  consider  ourselves  as  not  bound  by  such 
a  treaty,  and  they  want  us  to  affirm  once  more 
our  right  of  disposing  of  ourselves. 

I  beg  to  call  the  attention  of  the  reader  to  two 
sentences  of  this  protestation: 

"Europe  cannot  aUow  a  people  to  be  seized  like 
a  flock  of  sheep,"  wrote  the  deputies  of  1871. 
"People  are  not  mere  goods  which  may  be  sold 
or  with  which  you  may  trade,"  proclaimed  the 
deputies  of  1874.  Now  you  will  find,  nearly  word 
145 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

for  word,  the  same  thought  expressed  in  the  mes- 
sage of  President  Wilson  to  Congress,  when  he 
wrote :  "No  right  exists  anywhere  to  hand  peoples 
about  from  sovereignty  to  sovereignty  as  if  they 
were  property." 

That  right  does  not  exist,  and  it  is  because  that 
right  was  outrageously  violated  in  1871  that 
France  wants  Alsace-Lorraine  to  come  back  to 
her.  It  is  because,  in  1871,  Right  has  been 
wronged  that  today  Right  must  be  reinstated. 

Some  people  have  spoken  of  a  referendum.  Why 
a  referendum?  Was  there  any  referendum  in 
1871?  And  how  could  there  be  a  referendum? 
How  could  you  include  in  this  referendum  the  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  Alsatians  who  have  fled  from 
German  domination?  How  could  you  exclude  from 
this  referendum  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
Germans  who  have  come  to  Alsace? 

The  referendum  was  rendered  by  Mulhouse  in 
1798.  Will  that  town  be  obliged  to  vote  again? 
And  how  many  times  will  it  be  obliged  to  vote  for 
France?  The  referendum  was  rendered  by  the 
whole  of  Alsace  and  Lorraine  in  1871  and  1874, 
146 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

by  their  elected  deputies,  when  they  unanimously 
protested  against  the  German  annexation. 

It  was  rendered  twenty  years  ago  by  the  census 
which  was  taken  by  the  Germans  themselves  in 
Alsace.  According  to  that  census,  in  1895,  not- 
withstanding the  fact  that  the  teaching  of  French 
was  prohibited  in  the  public  schools,  there  were 
160,000  people  in  Alsace  speaking  French.  And 
five  years  later,  in  1900,  according  to  another 
census  there  were  200,000  people  in  Alsace 
speaking  French.  And  of  these  200,000  people, 
there  were  more  than  52,000  children. 

The  referendum  was  also  rendered  by  Alsatians 
who,  before  this  war,  engaged  themselves  in  the 
French  Army,  and  became  officers.  According  to 
the  official  statistics  of  the  French  War  Depart- 
ment, there  were  in  1914  in  the  French  Army  20 
generals,  145  superior  officers,  and  400  ordinary 
officers  of  Alsatian  origin.  On  the  other  side, 
in  the  German  Army  in  1914,  there  were  four  of- 
ficers of  Alsatian  origin. 

And  finally  the  referendum  was  rendered  only 
one  year  before  the  present  war,  in  1913,  when 
147 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

Herr  von  Jagow,  then  Prefect  of  Police  in  Berlin, 
made  the  following  extraordinary  declaration: 
**We  Germans  are  obliged  in  Alsace  to  behave 
ourselves  as  if  we  were  in  an  enemy's  coun- 
try. .  .  ."  What  better  referendum  could  you  wish 
than  such  an  admission  by  a  German  statesman? 

Moreover,  the  question  of  Alsace-Lorraine  is 
not  only  a  French  question,  but  also  an  inter- 
national question.  It  is  not  only  France  who  has 
sworn  to  herself  to  recover  Alsace-Lorraine — it 
is  all  the  Allies  who  have  sworn  to  France  that 
she  should  recover  it. 

"We  mean  to  stand  by  the  French  democracy 
to  the  death,"  solemnly  declared  Mr.  Lloyd-George 
on  the  5th  of  January,  1918,  "in  the  demand  they 
make  for  a  reconsideration  of  the  great  wrong 
of  1871,  when,  without  any  regard  to  the  wishes 
of  the  population,  two  French  provinces  were  torn 
from  the  side  of  France  and  incorporated  in  the 
German  Empire." 

And,  three  days  later,  using  nearly  the  same 
words,  President  Wilson,  in  his  luminous  message 
io  Congress,  said :  ^^The  wrong  done  to  France  by 
148 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

Prussia  in  1871,  in  the  matter  of  Alsace-Lorraine, 
which  has  unsettled  the  peace  of  the  world  for 
nearly  fifty  years  should  he  righted,  in  order  that 
peace  may  once  more  he  m^de  secure  vn  the  interest 
of  alV 

All  the  statesmen  who  have  spoken  since  the  be- 
ginning of  the  war  in  the  name  of  the  Allied  Pow- 
ers have  attested  that  this  war  is  not  only  a  strug- 
gle for  the  liberty  of  nations  and  the  respect  due 
to  nationalities,  but  also  an  effort  toward  definite 
peace.  Their  words  only  appeared  fit  for  stir- 
ring up  the  enthusiasm  of  the  crowds,  and  forti- 
fying their  will  of  sacrifice,  because  they  gave  ex- 
pression to  their  feelings  and  prayers.  If  they 
are  forgotten  by  those  who  uttered  them  they  will 
be  remembered  by  those  who  heard  and  treasured 
them. 

In  September,  1914,  Winston  Churchill  said: 
"We  want  this  war  to  remodel  the  map  of  Europe 
according  to  the  principle  of  nationalities,  and 
the  real  wish  of  the  people  living  in  the  contested 
territories.  After  so  much  bloodshed  we  wish  for 
a  peace  which  will  free  races,  and  restore  the  in- 
149 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

tegrity  of  nations.  .  .  .  Let  us  have  done  with 
the  armaments,  the  fear  of  strain,  intrigues,  and 
the  perpetual  threat  of  the  horrible  present  crisis. 
Let  us  make  the  regulation  of  European  conflicts 
just  and  natural."  The  French  republic,  of  one 
mind  with  the  Allies,  proclaimed  through  its  au- 
thorized representatives  that  this  war  is  a  war 
of  deliverance.  "France,"  said  Mr.  Stephen 
Pichon,  Foreign  Minister,  "will  not  lay  down  arms 
before  having  shattered  Prussian  militarism,  so 
as  to  be  able  to  rebuild  on  a  basis  of  justice  a  re- 
generated Europe."  And  Mr.  Paul  Deschanel, 
the  President  of  the  Chamber,  continued:  "The 
French  are  not  only  defending  their  soil,  their 
homes,  the  tombs  of  their  ancestors,  their  sacred 
memories,  their  ideal  works  of  art  and  faith  and 
all  the  graceful,  just,  and  beautiful  things  their 
genius  has  lavished  forth :  they  are  defending,  too, 
the  respect  of  treaties,  the  independence  of  Eu- 
rope, and  human  freedom.  We  want  to  know  if 
all  the  effort  of  conscience  during  centuries  will 
lead  to  its  slavery,  if  millions  of  men  are  to  be 
taken,  given  up,  herded  at  the  other  side  of  a  f  ron- 
150 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

tier  and  condemned  to  fight  for  their  conquerors 
and  masters  against  their  country,  their  families, 
and  their  brothers.  .  .  .  The  world  wishes  to  live 
at  last,  Europe  to  breathe,  and  the  nations  mean 
to  dispose  freely  of  themselves." 

These  engagements  will  be  kept.  But  they  wiU 
have  been  kept  only  when  Alsace-Lorraine — the 
Belgium  of  1871,  as  Rabbi  Stephen  Wise  has 
called  it — ^has  been  returned  to  France.  Then, 
and  only  then,  will  there  be  real  peace.  Then, 
and  only  then,  will  the  "Testament"  of  Paul  De- 
roulede  have  been  executed: 

When  our  war  victorious  is  o'er. 
And  our  country  has  won  back  its  rank. 
Then  with  the  evils  war  brings  in  its  train 
Will  disappear  the  hatred  the  conqueror  trails. 

Then  our  great  France,  full  of  love  without  spite 
Sowing    fresh    springing-corn    *neath    her    new-born 

laurels. 
Will  welcome  Work,  father  of  Fortune, 
And  sing  Peace,  mother  of  lengthy  deeds. 

Then  will  come  Peace,  calm,  serene,  and  awful. 
Crushing  down  arms,  but  upholding  intellect; 
For  we  shall  stand  out  as  just-hearted  conquerors. 
Only  taking  back  what  was  robbed  from  us. 

151 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

And  our  nation,  weary  of  mourning, 
Will  soothe  the  living  while  praising  the  dead, 
And  nevermore  will  we  hear  the  name  of  battle 
And  our  children  shall  learn  to  unlearn  hate. 

Just  as  France  will  not  accept  peace  without 
restitution,  she  will  not  accept  peace  without  rep- 
aration. 

Germany  can  never  make  reparation  for  aU  the 
ruin,  all  the  destruction,  all  the  sacrilege  she  has 
wrought.  There  can  be  no  reparation  for  the 
Cathedral  of  Rheims,  for  the  Hotel  de  Ville  at 
Arras,  for  the  deaths  of  thousands  of  innocent 
beings,  for  the  slaughter  of  women  and  children. 

But  there  can  be  reparation  for  the  damage 
done  to  machinery.  The  treasures  of  art  which, 
contrary  to  all  law  and  right,  Germany  has  taken 
into  her  own  country,  can  be  returned.  They  can 
return  the  funds  illegally  stolen  from  the  vaults 
of  municipalities,  banks  and  public  societies.  They 
can  pay  off  the  receipts  which  they  themselves 
have  signed  for  the  objects  they  have  compelled 
the  owners  to  hand  over  to  them. 

Every  chateau  in  the  north  of  France,  places 
152 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

such  as  those  of  the  Prince  of  Monaco,  of  Mr. 
Balny  d'Avricourt,  that  of  Coucy,  have  been 
looted  and  pillaged.  Antique  furniture,  paintings 
by  the  great  masters,  sculptures,  historic  pieces 
of  tapestry  have  been  carried  off  into  Germany. 
Tapestries,  sculptures,  furniture  and  paintings 
must  come  back  from  Germany.  The  museums  at 
St.  Quentin  and  Lille  have  seen  their  collections 
of  value  to  art  and  science  carried  off;  these  col- 
lections must  come  back.  Factories  have  been 
robbed  of  their  pumps,  of  their  equipment,  of 
their  trucks ;  other  pumps,  other  equipment,  other 
trucks  must  be  put  in  their  place.  Otherwise, 
nothing  will  prevent  that  in  the  future  other  ex- 
peditions will  come  to  ransack  other  countries. 
A  bold  move  towards  Venice  allowed  base  hands 
to  be  laid  on  the  most  beautiful  works  of  art  hu- 
manity had  produced.  A  fortunate  descent  on 
the  shores  of  Long  Island  or  of  New  Jersey  would 
allow  the  Metropolitan  Museum  to  be  looted. 

At  Ham,   in  the   Somme   district,   the   Grand 
Duke  of  Hesse,  the  former  Empress  of  Russia's 
brother,  one  morning  entered  the  shop  of  an  an- 
163 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

tiquarian  and  picked  out  a  number  of  ancient 
bibelots  and  vases,  ordering  that  they  be  sent  to 
his  quarters.  The  owner  thought  it  would  be 
wise  to  state  the  price  of  the  lot : 

"The  price,"  exclaimed  the  Grand  Duke, 
''there's  nothing  for  me  to  pay  for!  Everything 
here  belongs  to  me." 

But  the  owner  protested,  since,  as  he  said, 
he  did  own  the  goods. 

"Here,"  said  the  Grand  Duke,  "this  will  pay 
you  for  them." 

And  he  handed  the  man  his  card  with  the  words 
'*good  for  so  many  francs"  written  on  it ;  also  his 
signature. 

The  number  of  francs  mentioned  on  the  Grand 
Duke  of  Hesse's  card  will  have  to  be  paid  in  full 
after  the  war.  So  will  the  thousands  of  requisi- 
tions signed  by  persons  of  less  importance — ^gov- 
ernors, generals,  colonels,  majors,  men  who 
thought  they  could  ransack  all  Belgium  and  the 
north  of  France  with  impunity,  giving  in  exchange 
mere  scraps  of  paper. 

The  great  cities  of  Lille,  Roubaix,  Tourcoing, 
154 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

Laon  and  Mezieres  have  been  compelled  to  pay 
exorbitant  levies  for  war  purposes,  which  have 
amounted  to  billions  of  francs.  This  was  con- 
trary to  all  international  law  and  to  the  Hague 
Tribunal's  regulations.  The  funds  thus  illegally 
extorted  will  have  to  be  repaid  in  full.  No  indem- 
nities— that  is  understood  and  is  perfectly  just. 
It  is  precisely  because  there  will  not  have  to  be 
any  indemnities  that  the  indemnities  already  ex- 
torted will  have  to  be  made  good. 

Finally,  just  as  France  cannot  make  peace 
without  receiving  restitution  and  reparation,  she 
cannot  make  peace  without  receiving  certain  guar- 
antees. 

Here  we  approach  one  of  the  most  complex  and 
difficult  aspects  of  the  entire  problem,  because  we 
find  ourselves  in  the  presence  of  the  famous  League 
of  Nations.  President  Wilson,  one  of  the  most 
noble  and  generous  spirits,  one  of  the  greatest  fig- 
ures that  has  appeared  in  the  entire  war,  launched 
if  not  the  idea  at  least  the  first  definite  statement 
thereof.  .  .  .  And  this  statement  has  awakened 
155 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

in  all  hearts,  tired  of  carnage  and  slaughter,  the 
same  infinite  hope  that  words  of  goodness,  liberty 
and  fraternity  always  awaken,  which  evoke  the 
thought  of  the  supreme  end  towards  which  human- 
ity tends.  The  statement  has  done  better  than 
merely  move  men's  emotions,  it  has  moved  men's 
thoughts.  It  has  kindled  in  them  a  ray  of  hope 
which  tends  to  shine  more  brightly  every  day  in 
that  they  know  that  the  civilized  world  will  be 
truly  a  civilized  world  only  when  it  is  formed  and 
fashioned  in  the  likeness  of  a  civilized  nation.  In 
a  civilized  nation  no  one  has  the  right  to  kill  an- 
other man,  to  obtain  justice  by  using  force,  to 
commit  murder,  nor  to  raise  armed  bands  to  shoot, 
blow  up  or  kill  with  poisoned  gas  other  men.  Tri- 
bunals exist  to  appease  differences  and  to  prevent 
fighting;  every  citizen  is  associated  with  every 
other  citizen  in  the  common  cause  of  security  and 
progress. 

In  a  civilized  world  no  nation  has  the  right  to 

massacre,  no  nation  ought  to  have  the  right  to 

resort  to  the  use  of  force  to  obtain  justice,  no 

nation  ought  to  have  the  right  to  attack,  harm, 

156 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

or  destroy  another  nation.  There  ought  to  be 
tribunals  to  appease  the  differences  of  peoples 
as  well  as  those  of  individuals ;  every  nation  ought 
to  be  associated  with  every  other  nation  to  assure 
the  progress  of  the  entire  world. 

This  theory  is  not  only  appealing,  it  is  irrefu- 
table. But  it  is  a  law  for  this  earth  that  the  most 
profoundly  just  and  true  theories,  those  which 
have  been  most  scientifically  demonstrated,  encoun- 
ter, when  put  into  practice,  obstacles  which  have 
not  been  surmounted  and  are  often  insurmount- 
able. 

President  Wilson,  who  is  not  only  a  great  jurist 
and  a  noble  idealist,  but  who  also  has  that  genius 
for  realization  which  is  a  characteristic  of  all 
America,  has  not  failed  to  appreciate  the  difficul- 
ties which  the  League  of  Nations  would  encounter 
were  it  put  into  practice.  And  if,  in  his  messages, 
he  has  insisted  with  a  force  that  is  every  day  more 
eloquent  on  the  necessity  of  tackling  the  problem ; 
he  has  never  given  a  detailed  solution  for  it. 

He  has  done  better  than  that,  for  he  has  swept 
aside  certain  factors  which  would  have  made  it 
157 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

absolutely  impossible.  On  tbe  second  of  April, 
1917,  in  his  immortal  declaration  of  war,  he  for- 
mally declared  that  "no  autocratic  government 
could  be  trusted  to  keep  faith  within  a  partnership 
of  nations  or  observe  its  covenants.  It  must  be 
a  league  of  honor,  a  partnership  of  opinion.  In- 
trigue would  eat  its  vitals  away ;  the  plottings  of 
inner  circles  who  could  plan  what  they  would  and 
render  account  to  no  one,  would  be  a  corruption 
seated  at  its  very  heart.  Only  a  free  people  can 
hold  their  purpose  and  their  honor  steady  to  a 
common  end,  and  prefer  the  interests  of  manldnd 
to  any  narrow  interest  of  their  own." 

These  are  admirable  words  of  truth  and  of 
philosophic  depth,  words  which  deserve  to  be 
graven  in  stone.  No  autocracy,  then,  in  the 
League  of  Nations,  no  German  militarism  nor 
Austrian  imperialism  in  it.  No  universal  league 
of  nations,  even,  but  a  limited  society,  a  society  of 
democracies ! 

Certain  hasty  critics  have  observed  neither  the 
same  prudence  nor  logic  as  President  Wilson. 
They  have  been  farther  from  the  truth,  much  far- 
158 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

ther  from  the  truth.  They  have  falsified  his  text, 
as  do  all  commentators.  They  have  desired  to 
build  complete  in  all  details  the  League  of  Na- 
tions, which  only  existed  in  outline.  They  have 
succeeded  in  showing  how  difficult  the  construction 
would  be,  and  they  have  only  been  able  to  set  up 
a  house  of  cards  which  the  first  breath  of  wind 
would  knock  down. 

For  example,  this  is  how  one  of  the  most  emi- 
nent French  socialists,  M.  Albert  Thomas,  a  man 
who  has  given  abundant  proof  of  his  practical 
experience  and  actual  talents,  formerly  the  French 
Minister  of  Munitions,  depicts  the  League  of  Na- 
tions : 

Let  us  suppose  [he  wrote  on  the  twenty-fifth 
of  December,  1917],  as  the  mathematicians  say, 
that  the  problem  is  solved.  Let  us  suppose  that 
the  society  of  nations,  made  up  of  all  the  nations, 
had  been  created  by  common  accord  about  the 
year  1910  or  1912.  What  would  it  have  accom- 
plished? After  the  assassination  of  the  Arch- 
duke Franz  Ferdinand,  the  Hague  Tribunal,  or 
perhaps  the  Washington  Tribunal,  would  have 
made  inquiry  into  the  conditions  of  the  murder. 
169 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

It  would  have  taken  certain  steps.  And  if  Aus- 
tria, still  dissatisfied,  had  invaded  Serbia  for  the 
sake  of  revenge  or  to  give  scope  to  her  ambitious 
designs,  if  Germany  had  joined  with  her  in  this, 
then  all  the  other  allied  nations,  in  the  perform- 
ance of  their  duty,  would  have  entered  into  a 
war  against  the  central  powers  in  order  to  force 
them  to  respect  the  liberties  and  the  integrity  of 
little  Serbia.  For  there  can  be  no  rule  without 
sanction  therefore.  No  international  law  is  pos- 
sible if  there  does  not  exist  at  the  service  of 
this  law  the  "organized  force  that  is  superior  to 
that  of  any  nation  or  to  that  of  any  alliance  of 
nations"  of  which  President  Wilson  speaks. 

If  the  society  of  nations  had  existed  in  1914* 
and  if  Germany  had  violated  its  laws,  the  entire 
world  would  have  taken  military  action  against 
Germany  by  means  of  war,  economic  action  by 
means  of  blockade  and  of  depriving  her  of  the 
necessities  of  life.  The  entire  world  would  have 
been  at  war  with  her  and  her  allies.  And  in  order 
that  the  league  of  nations  might  continue  to  exist, 
in  order  that  the  rule  of  justice,  scarcely  out- 
lined, could  have  continued  to  exist,  the  victory  of 
the  entente  powers  would  have  been  as  necessary 
as  it  is  today.  Mr.  Lloyd-George  and  President 
Wilson  would  have  said,  as  they  say  today,  "No 
league  of  nations  without  victory." 
160 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

The  difference  is  that  in  1914  a  verdict  in  the 
case  would  have  been  handed  down  by  the  com- 
mon tribunal  of  the  nations,  and  that  there  would 
have  been  no  possible  discussion  of  the  violations 
of  right  committed  by  Germany  nor  on  the  re- 
sponsibility for  having  caused  the  war. 

The  difference  would  have  been  that  in  place  of 
seeing  the  neutral  nations  hesitating,  frightened 
by  German  force,  disturbed  by  German  lies,  rally- 
ing only  under  the  protection  of  one  of  the  Entente 
armies,  at  the  moment  when  they  had  seen  on 
which  side  lay  right,  they  would  all,  at  the  very 
beginning,  have  entered  into  the  battle  in  fulfill- 
ment of  their  obligations  not  only  on  account  of 
their  moral  responsibility  but  on  account  of  their 
clearly  understood  interests. 

Finally  the  difference  is  that,  the  rights  of 
the  peoples  having  been  defined  clearly,  there 
would  have  been  no  moment's  uncertainty  nor 
hesitation  concerning  the  ends  of  the  war. 

And  it  is  impossible  to  doubt  that  the  present 
situation  of  the  war  would  have  been  decidedly 
different  from  what  it  is  today. 

I  have  cited  the  passage  at  length  in  order  to 

give  the  critic's  argument  its  widest  scope.     But, 

alas,  who  does  not  see  the  argument's  fallacy  .f^ 

Who  does  not  perceive  that  this  reenforced  sky- 

161 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

scraper  is  a  cardboard  column  liable  to  fall  with 
the  first  push  that  is  given  it? 

Moreover,  from  the  very  beginning,  the  origina- 
tor of  the  idea  of  the  society  of  nations  admits  the 
hypothesis  of  a  war  and  presupposes  all  the  na- 
tions in  the  league  are  making  war  against  an- 
other nation.  Even  with  the  society  of  nations 
there  will  still  be  wars.  Even  with  the  society  of 
nations  there  wiU  be  no  guarantee  of  absolute 
peace. 

So  we  are  shown  the  spectacle,  in  case  of  war, 
of  all  the  nations  making  war  at  once,  without  the 
least  hesitation,  without  delay,  without  any  dis- 
cussion, against  the  people  that  disturbs  the  peace 
of  the  world.  Is  it  a  certainty  that  this  unanim- 
ity would  result?  Is  it  a  certainty  that  there 
would  be  no  falling  away,  no  delay  ?  And,  granting 
that  there  would  be  none  of  this,  is  it  a  certainty 
that  irremediable  catastrophies  could  be  avoided? 
To  consider  once  more  M.  Thomas'  example  of  the 
war  of  1914,  let  us  suppose  that  there  had  been 
at  that  time  a  society  of  nations,  that  England 
had  had  an  army,  that  the  United  States  had  had 
162 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

an  army,  and  that  the  Anglo-American  army  had 
not  lost  a  day  nor  an  hour.  Is  it  a  certainty  that 
they  would  have  prevented  the  Germans  from  be- 
ing at  the  gates  of  Liege  on  the  seventh  of  Au- 
gust, in  Brussels  on  the  nineteenth  of  August,  and 
before  Paris  on  the  second  of  September?  And  if 
today  France,  England,  America,  Italy,  Japan 
and  four-fifths  of  the  civilized  world,  in  spite  of 
the  treasure  of  heroism  and  effort  that  has  been 
expended,  have  not  been  able  to  prevent  the  pres- 
ent result,  is  it  possible  that  this  would  have  been 
obtained  with  the  assistance  of  Switzerland,  the 
Scandinavian  nations,  Holland  and  Spain? 

"The  difference,"  continues  M.  Thomas,  "is  that 
there  would  not  have  been  the  possibility  of  any 
discussion  of  the  violation  of  rights  committed 
by  Germany,  nor  upon  what  nation  rests  the  re- 
sponsibility for  causing  the  war.'*  But  is  that 
so  sure?  How  was  there  any  discussion  in  1914 
of  the  violation  of  Belgium  by  Germany?  Did 
not  Germany  herself,  in  the  teeth  of  all  the  world, 
hurl  the  avowal  of  this  violation  when  von  Beth- 
mann-Hollweg,  in  the  Reichstag,  cynically  de- 
163 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

clared:  "We  have  just  invaded  Belgium.  .  .  . 
Yes,  we  know  that  it  is  contrary  to  international 
law ;  but  we  were  compelled  by  necessity.  And  ne- 
cessity knows  no  law."  What  international  tri- 
bunal's verdict  could  have  the  force  of  this  avowal 
from  the  lips  of  the  guilty  man?  However,  the 
world  has  not  moved,  the  world  has  not  trembled, 
the  world  is  not  now  up  in  arms.  And  who  would 
guarantee  that  another  time  when  the  case  will  be 
perhaps  less  flagrant,  the  crime  more  obscure,  the 
aggressor  less  cynical,  the  world  will  tremble  and 
rise  in  arms? 

Moreover,  is  it  always  possible  to  determine  the 
responsibility  for  war's  origin?  Is  it  always  pos- 
sible, before  an  international  tribunal  of  arbitra- 
tion, to  throw  the  proper  light  and  all  the  light  on 
the  course  events  have  taken?  Will  the  judges  al- 
ways be  unanimous  ? 

Take  the  case  of  the  last  Balkan  War  in  1912. 
Is  it  possible  today,  from  a  six  years'  perspective, 
to  establish  with  any  degree  of  certitude  the  rea- 
sons for  its  outbreak  and  determine  without  hesi- 
tation the  responsibility  for  it?  Can  you  affirm 
164 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

with  any  degree  of  certainty  that  a  court  com- 
posed of  American,  European  and  Asiatic  jurists 
would  be  unanimous  in  condemning  Turkey  and 
exonerating  Bulgaria?  And  tomorrow,  if  the 
Ukraine  should  suddenly  hurl  itself  against  the 
Republic  of  the  Don,  or  if  Finland  invaded  Great 
Russia,  with  your  international  court  would  you 
be  really  in  a  way  to  pronounce  a  verdict  within 
&\e  days?  And  if  Sweden  took  Finland's  part 
and  Germany  took  Great  Russia's,  could  you 
guarantee  that  Argentina,  Japan,  Australia  and 
even  France  would  consent  to  mobilize  their  fleets 
and  their  armies  to  settle  the  question  of  a  fron- 
tier on  the  banks  of  the  Neva?  Can  you  guarantee 
that  every  war  of  every  Slav  republic  would  have 
for  a  correlative  the  mobilization  of  the  entire 
world  ? 

And  then  are  you  certain  that  the  idea  of  a 
society  of  nations  is  exactly  a  new  one  ?  Are  you 
certain  that  there  did  not  exist  a  society  of  na- 
tions before  the  outbreak  of  the  present  war? 
Have  you  never  heard  that,  on  the  fifteenth  of 
June,  1907,  at  The  Hague,  forty-four  nations  of 
165 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

the  civilized  world  (and  Germany  was  one  of  the 
number)  assembled  and  met  together  to  form 
such  a  league?  Have  you  never  heard  of  the 
treaty  that  was  signed  then  which,  according  to 
the  wording  at  the  treaty's  head,  had  for  its  ob- 
ject "fixing  the  laws  and  usages  at  war  on  the 
land"?  Have  you  never  read  the  terms  of  this 
convention,  have  you  never  glanced  through  the 
sixty-odd  articles  which  today,  in  the  presence  of 
the  nameless  horrors  in  which  we  lend  a  hand, 
offer  a  prodigious  interest  to  actuality? 

Glance  over  these  articles — and  let  us  see  how 
they  have  been  applied : 

Article  4  provides  that  *^prisoners  of  war 
rmist  be  hnmumely  treated.  All  their  persoTwl 
belongings,  except  arms,  horses,  and  military  pa- 
pers, remavn  their  property.*^  Now  all  the  pris- 
oners held  by  Germany  have,  without  exception, 
been  spoiled  of  their  money,  of  their  portfolios, 
of  their  rings,  of  their  jewels,  of  their  eyeglasses. 

Article  6  says  that  ^Hhe  state  may  employ  as 

workman  the  prisoners  of  war,^'  but  it  is  careful 

in  stipulating  "that  the  work  must  not  be  exces- 

sive  and  must  have  nothimg  whatever  to  do  with 

166 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

operations  of  war.^*  Article  7  says  that 
** prisoners  of  war  shall  he  treated  as  regards 
hoard,  lodging,  and  clothvng  on  the  same  footing 
as  the  troops  of  the  Government  who  captured 
them."  Each  of  these  two  articles  has  been  vio- 
lated since  the  beginning  of  the  war  by  the  Ger- 
mans. After  the  Battle  of  the  Marne,  when  the 
advancing  French  troops  of  Joffre  arrived  on  the 
Aisne  they  found  French  civilians  captured  by 
the  Germans  and  compelled  by  them  to  work  in 
the  trenches.  Moreover,  an  official  report  emanat- 
ing from  Mr.  Gustave  Ador,  President  of  the 
International  Red  Cross,  now  member  of  the 
Swiss  Federal  Council,  called  the  attention  of  the 
belligerents  as  soon  as  October,  1914,  to  the  bad 
treatment  of  the  French  prisoners  in  Germany. 
Each  French  officer  had,  as  prisoner,  a  salary  of 
one  hundred  marks  per  month,  which  was  not 
even  half  of  the  pay  of  an  under-officer. 

Articles  23,  25,  27,  and  28  are  so  interesting 
that  they  must  be  quoted  in  extenso: 

Article  23.  In  addition  to  the  prohibitions 
provided  hy  special  conventions,  it  is  especially 
forhidden: 

(a)  To  employ  poison  or  poisoned  zveapons. 

(c)  To  kill  or  wound  cm  enemy  who,  having  laid 
down  his  arms,  or  having  no  longer  means  of  de- 
fense, has  surrendered  at  discretion, 
167 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

(d)  To  declare  that  no  quarter  will  he  given, 

(e)  To  employ  arms,  projectiles,  or  material 
calculated  to  cause  unnecessary  suffering. 

(f)  To  make  improper  use  of  a  flag  of  truce,  of 
the  national  flag,  or  of  the  miUtary  insignia  amd 
uniform  of  the  en^my,  as  well  as  the  distinctive 
badges  of  the  Geneva  Convention. 

(g)  To  destroy  or  seize  the  enemy's  property, 
unless  such  destruction  or  seizure  he  imperatively 
demanded  by  the  necessities  of  war, 

(h)  A  belligerent  is  likewise  forbidden  to  com- 
pel the  nationals  of  the  hostile  party  to  take  part 
i/n  the  operations  of  war  directed  against  their 
own  cowntry,  even  if  they  were  vn  the  heUigerenfs 
service  before  the  commencement  of  the  war. 

Article  ^5.  The  attack  or  bombardment,  by 
whatever  meams,  of  towns,  villages,  dweUmgs,  or 
buildings  which  are  undefended  is  prohibited. 

Aetici^e  27.  In  sieges  and  bombardments  aU 
necessary  steps  must  he  taken  to  spare,  as  far  as 
possible,  buildings  dedicated  to  religion,  art, 
science,  or  charitable  purposes,  historic  monu- 
ments, hospitals  and  places  where  the  sick  and 
wounded  are  collected,  provided  they  are  not  be- 
ing used  at  the  time  for  military  purposes. 

Article  28.  The  pillage  of  a  town  or  place, 
even  when  taken  by  assault,  is  prohibited. 

It  seems  that  the  men  of  The  Hague,  when  they 
168 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

wrote  those  articles,  had  a  sort  of  prescience  of 
the  future  cruelties  of  war  and  that  they  wanted 
to  avoid  them.  Let  us  see  how  far  they  have 
succeeded. 

It  was  forbidden  to  employ  poison  or  poisoned 
weapons.  No  later  than  last  spring  when  the 
Germans  evacuated  certain  parts  of  the  north  of 
France  instructions  emanating  from  the  German 
general  headquarters  were  found  in  the  pocket 
of  many  German  prisoners  or  on  the  dead,  and 
those  instructions  indicated  how  the  water  of 
the  wells  was  to  be  poisoned:  **Such  and  such  a 
soldier,"  ran  instructions,  "will  be  in  charge  of 
the  wells,  wiU  throw  in  each  one  a  sufficient  quan- 
tity of  poison  or  creosote,  or,  lacking  these,  all 
available  filth." 

It  was  forbidden  to  declare  that  no  quarter 
would  be  given.  And  here  is  the  order  of  the  day 
issued  on  August  25,  1914,  by  General  Stenger, 
commanding  the  Fifty-eighth  German  Brigade,  to 
his  troops:  "After  today  no  more  prisoners  will 
be  taken.  All  prisoners  are  to  be  killed.  Wounded, 
with  or  without  arms,  are  to  be  killed.  Even 
prisoners  already  grouped  in  convoys  are  to  be 
killed.  Let  not  a  single  living  enemy  remain  be- 
hind us." 

It  was  forbidden  to  pillage  a  town  or  locality, 
even  when  taken  by  assault.     And  on  the  corpse 
169 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

of  the  German  private  Hands chumacher  (of  the 
Eleventh  Battalion  of  Jagers,  Reserve)  in  the  very/ 
earliest  days  of  the  war,  was  found  the  following 
diary:  "August  8,  1914.  Gouvy  (Belgium). 
There,  as  the  Belgians  had  fired  on  the  German 
soldiers,  we  at  once  pillaged  the  goods  station. 
Some  cases,  eggs,  shirts,  and  all  eatables  were 
seized.  The  safe  was  gutted  and  the  money  di- 
vided among  the  men.  All  securities  were  torn 
up." 

In  fact,  pillage  and  robberies  went  on  on  such 
a  high  scale  during  the  first  months  of  the  war 
that  considerable  sums  of  money  were  sent  from 
France  and  Belgium  to  Germany.  A  German 
newspaper,  the  Berlin  Tagehlatt,  of  November  26, 
1914,  implicitly  avowed  it  when,  in  a  technical 
article  on  the  military  treasury  ("D^r  Zahlmeister 
im  Felde**),  it  wrote:  "It  is  curious  to  note  that 
far  more  money-orders  are  sent  from  the  theater 
of  operations  to  the  interior  of  the  country  than 
vice  versa,^^ 

AuTiciiE  50  of  this  Hague  Convention  states 
that  *'wo  general  penalty ^  pecuniary  or  otherwise, 
shall  he  inflicted  upon  the  popvlation  on  account 
of  the  acts  of  i/ndiznduals  for  which  they  camwt  he 
regarded  as  jointly  and  severally  responsible.** 
Side  by  side  with  this  article,  it  is  interesting  to 
reproduce  an  extract  from  a  proclamation  of 
170 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

General  von  Biilow,  posted  up  at  Liege  on  August 
22,  1914<:  "The  inhabitants  of  the  town  of  An- 
denne,  after  having  protested  their  peaceful  in- 
tentions, treacherously  surprised  our  troops.  It 
is  with  my  full  consent  that  the  general  in  com- 
mand had  the  whole  place  burned,  and  about  a 
hundred  people  were  shot.'*  Moreover,  here  is  an 
extract  from  a  proclamation  of  Major-Com- 
mander Dieckmann,  posted  up  at  Grivegnee  on 
September  8,  1914*:  "Every  one  who  does  not 
obey  at  once  the  word  of  command,  ^Hands  up,'  is 
guilty  of  the  penalty  of  death."  And  finally  here 
is  an  extract  from  a  proclamation  of  Marshal 
Baron  von  der  Goltz,  posted  up  in  Brussels  on 
October  5,  1914 :  "In  future  all  places  near  the 
spot  where  such  acts  have  taken  place  [destruc- 
tion of  railway  lines  or  telegraph  wires] — ^no  mat- 
ter whether  guilty  or  not — shall  be  punished 
without  mercy.  With  this  end  in  view,  hostages 
have  been  brought  from  all  places  near  railway 
lines  exposed  to  such  attacks,  and  at  the  first  at- 
tempt to  destroy  railway  lines,  telegraph  or  tele- 
phone lines,  they  will  be  immediately  shot." 

Artici^e  56  of  the  Hague  Convention  provides 
that  "the  property  of  municipalities y  that  of  in- 
stitutions dedicated  to  religion,  charity,  a/nd  edvr 
cation,  to  the  arts  and  sciences,  even  when  state 
property,  shall  he  treated  as  private  property, 
171 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

All  seizure  of,  destruction^  or  wUlfuZ  damage  done 
to  institutions  of  this  character,  historical  monw- 
TnentSy  works  of  art  and  science,  is  forbidden,  and 
should  he  made  the  subject  of  legal  proceedings" 
Four  names,  which  will  be  eternally  remem- 
bered, are  here  suificient  to  answer :  there  is  Rheims 
and  its  Cathedral,  Louvain  and  its  library.  Arras 
and  its  Town  Hall,  Ypres  and  its  beU  tower. 

In  the  course  of  this  war,  Germany  has  dis- 
avowed her  signature  any  number  of  times  and 
has  broken  her  pledges  just  as  often  as  she  has 
made  them.  Germany  is  a  proven  perjurer  not 
only  in  the  eyes  of  the  nations  at  war  with  her,  but 
also  in  the  regard  of  the  forty-four  countries  sig- 
natory of  the  Hague  Convention.  However,  we 
have  never  heard  that  a  single  one  of  these  nations 
lodged  a  protest  against  her  actions.  The  Hague 
Convention  has  been  torn  into  shreds,  and  not 
one  of  its  signers  has  entered  the  slightest  protest. 

Is  the  next  society  of  nations  to  be  modeled  on 
the  same  principles?  Is  the  next  society  of  na- 
tions going  to  draw  up  articles  of  the  same  kind 
as  the  Hague  society?  Is  the  future  society  of 
nations  to  accept  among  its  members  the  same  Em- 
172 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

pire  of  Germany  which  in  1914  declared  bank- 
ruptcy? Will  the  future  act  of  the  society  of 
nations  be  a  simple  scrap  of  paper,  like  the  last 
act  of  1907? 

But  let  us  cease  asking  these  questions.  There 
is  no  gain  in  asking  certain  questions  to  gain  cer- 
tain replies.  There  is  no  gain  in  examining  certain 
problems  to  make  the  difficulties  of  the  solution 
more  apparent. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  the  society  of  nations 
will  exist  some  day.  For  the  honor  of  humanity 
we  must  hope  that  it  will  exist.  But  it  is  not  one 
day's  work,  nor  the  speaking  of  a  single  discourse 
nor  the  writing  of  one  article  that  will  build  it. 
In  M.  Clemenceau's  words,  right  can  not  be  firmly 
established  as  long  as  the  world  is  based  on  might. 
To  bring  about  the  rule  of  Right,  Might  must  be 
destroyed  and  driven  out  as  the  very  first  move 
in  the  campaign  for  ultimate  liberty. 

German  Might  will  not  be  destroyed  by  inter- 
national compacts  to  which  Germany  will  be 
party.  Recall  the  treaty  guaranteeing  Belgium's 
integrity,  which  was  one  that  Germany  signed. 
173 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

Recall  the  Hague  Conventions,  signed  bj  this 
same  Germany.  The  men  are  fools  who  will  not 
recall  these  things,  who  will  not  profit  by  them 
as  examples.  German  might  will  only  be  destroyed 
by  international  agreements  to  which  Grermany 
is  not  a  party,  and  which  shall  place  Grerman 
might  beyond  the  regions  in  which  it  can  play  a 
dangerous  part. 

Now  we  are  not  building  this  upon  sand,  but 
upon  a  foundation  of  solid  rock. 

Germany  needs  two  things  to  continue  her  na- 
tional existence.  She  must  import  from  other 
countries  certain  products  necessary  to  her  ex- 
istence. For  example,  there  is  wool,  of  which 
she  was  obliged  to  import  1,888,481  metric  quin- 
tals in  order  to  manufacture  her  sixteen  thousand 
grades  of  woolen  fabrics.  There  is  copper,  of 
which  Germany  imported  250,000  tons  in  1913 
(200,000  tons  came  from  America),  in  order  to 
sell  the  merchandise  she  finds  has  a  good  market 
in  foreign  countries.  Considering  all  Germany's 
exports  for  the  period  from  1903-1913,  we  find 
that  their  total  has  passed  from  6,400  millions  to 
174 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

12,600  millions,  an  increase  of  nearly  one  hundred 
per  cent. 

There  lies  the  best,  the  true,  indeed  the  only 
means  whereby  the  Allies  can  compel  Germany  to 
disarm.  We  do  not  demand  that  the  economic 
war  shall  continue  after  the  actual  warfare  is  at 
an  end,  but  we  can  demand  that  the  Allies  shall 
not  lay  aside  their  economic  arms  when  the  Grer- 
mans  shall  have  laid  aside  their  fighting  arms.  In 
other  words,  we  can  demand  that  the  Allies  do  not 
give  Germany  wool,  copper  and  money  if  they 
know  that  this  wool,  money  and  copper  are  to 
feed  the  war  machine.  This  war  machine  cost 
the  German  Empire  nearly  four  hundred  millions 
of  dollars  according  to  the  budget  of  1914.  Sup- 
pose the  Allies  said  to  Germany,  "As  long  as  you 
have  a  military  and  naval  budget  of  four  hundred 
millions  of  dollars,  we  regret  that  we  shall  be  un- 
able to  sell  you  wool  and  copper.  We  regret  that 
we  shall  be  unable  to  buy  anything  from  you.  But, 
if  you  reduce  this  budget  by  half,  we  are  willing 
to  give  you  one  million  metric  quintals  of  wool 
and  125,000  tons  of  copper.  Likewise,  we  are 
175 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

disposed  to  make  purchases  in  your  market  total- 
ling one  billion  dollars.  If  your  military  and 
naval  budgets  fall  to  nothing,  we  are  willing  to  go 
much  farther  and  buy  and  sell  everything  with 
you  in  unlimited  quantities."  Suppose  the  Allies 
make  these  proposals  to  Germany.  Suppose  they 
are  put  into  effect.  Will  they  not  be  a  better 
guarantee  of  universal  peace  than  aU  the  Conven- 
tions and  all  the  courts  of  arbitration  in  the 
world  ? 

Then  let  no  one  disturb  the  peace  of  the  world 
for  his  selfish  purposes.  Left  to  themselves,  the 
little  Balkan  States  and  Slav  States  will  not  start 
great,  long  wars,  just  as  the  lone  robber  posted  at 
the  edge  of  a  woods  will  not  endanger  a  province's 
communications  for  very  long.  The  formidable 
thing  is  the  great  country  that  is  arranged  and 
planned  along  the  lines  of  war,  where  everything 
is  organized  with  a  view  to  war;  just  as  the  for- 
midable thing  for  a  city  is  the  small  band  of  male- 
factors who  are  able  to  terrify  half  the  citizens 
by  the  use  of  highly  perfected  arms. 

There  will  be  no  lasting  peace  until  the  most 
176 


THE  WAR  AIMS  OF  FRANCE 

terrible  war  machine  the  world  has  ever  known 
shall  have  been  destroyed,  reduced  to  an  impotent 
state  of  non-existence.  Ideals  will  not  destroy 
this  machine,  but  practical  means  and  getting 
down  to  the  facts  of  the  case  will  do  so.  Pasteur 
did  not  overcome  hydrophobia  by  writing  treatises 
and  dissertations.  He  met  poison  with  poison, 
he  injected  the  healing  serum  into  the  veins  of  the 
maxldened  dog.  Now  Germany  is  the  mad  dog, 
and  Germany  must  be  inoculated.  After  that 
there  will  be  time  to  pass  hygienic  measures  for 
the  regiment  of  the  entire  world.  Today  Ger- 
many must  be  killed  or  cured.  Germany  is  the 
cancer  that  must  be  cut  out,  lest  it  eat  up 
the  world. 

It  has  been  a  matter  of  life  and  death  for  Lib- 
erty and  Civilization.  Both  of  them  have  been 
sick  unto  death.  Clutched  foully  by  the  throat, 
they  have  heard  their  own  death  rattle;  they 
themselves  thought  they  might  not  survive.  Now 
they  stand  on  their  feet,  so  weak,  so  pale,  and  so 
feeble  that  their  life  might  still  be  despaired  of. 
If  we  do  not  obtain  definite  guarantees  against 
177 


FIGHTING  FRANCE 

the  monster  who  has  barely  failed  to  strangle  them 
and  to  force  the  entire  world  back  into  the  dark- 
ness of  slavery,  we  shall  have  failed  in  our  task, 
and  the  blood  shed  in  the  fight  for  Liberty  will 
have  been  shed  in  vain. 


APPENDICES 

The  following  irrefutable  documents,  selected 
from  among  thousands  of  others  which  history 
will  record,  prove  better  than  any  other  means 
how  the  Germans  understand  war  and  peace.  They 
deserve  a  place  in  this  volume  because  they  demon- 
strate why  and  against  what  France  is  fighting. 


APPENDIX  I 
HOW    GERMANS    FORCED    WAR   ON   FRANCE 

Answering  to  the  Pope,  in  September,  1917, 
Kaiser  Wilhelm  II  declared  "that  he  had  always 
regarded  it  as  his  principal  and  most  sacred  duty 
to  preserve  the  blessing  of  Peace  for  the  Germa/n 
people  and  the  world."  More  recently,  driving 
through  the  battlefield  of  Cambrai,  the  Kaiser, 
179 


APPENDICES 

according  to  the  war  correspondent  of  the  Berlin 
Lokalanzeiger,  exclaimed:  "God  knows  what  I 
have  not  done  to  prevent  such  a  warl^' 

A  document  made  public  by  M.  Stephen  Pi- 
chon,  French  Foreign  Minister,  shows  exactly 
how,  in  the  last  days  of  July,  1914,  the  Kaiser 
tried  "to  preserve  the  blessings  of  Peace  for  the 
German  people  and  the  world"  and  what  he  did 
"to  prevent  such  a  war." 

Speaking  at  the  Sorbonne,  in  Paris,  on  March 
1, 1918,  M.Pichon  said: 

I  will  establish  by  documents  that  the  day  the 
Grermans  deliberately  rendered  inevitable  the  most 
frightful  of  wars  they  tried  to  dishonor  us  by  the 
most  cowardly  complicity  in  the  ambush  into 
which  they  drew  Europe.  I  will  establish  it  in 
the  revelation  of  a  document  which  the  German 
Chancellor,  after  having  drawn  it  up,  preserved 
carefully,  and  you  will  see  why,  in  the  most  pro- 
found mystery  of  the  most  secret  archives. 

We  have  known  only  recently  of  its  authen- 
ticity, and  it  defies  any  sort  of  attempt  to  dis- 
prove it.  It  bears  the  signature  of  Bethmann 
Hollweg  (German  Imperial  Chancellor  at  the  out- 
break of  the  war)  and  the  date  July  31,  1914. 
180 


APPENDICES 

On  that  day  Von  Schoen  (German  Ambassador  to 
France)  was  charged  by  a  telegram  from  his 
Chancellor  to  notify  us  of  a  state  of  danger  of 
war  with  Russia  and  to  ask  us  to  remain  neutral, 
giving  us  eighteen  hours  in  which  to  reply. 

What  was  unknown  until  today  was  that  the 
telegram  of  the  German  Chancellor  containing 
these  instructions  ended  with  these  words: 

If  the  French  Government  declares  it  will  re- 
main neutral  your  Excellency  will  he  good  enough 
to  declare  that  we  must,  as  a  guarantee  of  its  neu- 
trality,  require  the  handing  over  of  the  fortresses 
of  Tovl  and  Verdun;  that  we  will  occupy  them  and 
will  restore  them  after  the  end  of  the  war  with 
RVfSsia.  A  reply  to  this  last  question  must  reach 
here  before  Saturday  afternoon  at  ^  6*clock, 

That  is  how  Germany  wanted  peace  at  the  mo- 
ment when  she  declared  war !  That  is  how  sincere 
she  was  in  pretending  that  we  obliged  her  to  take 
up  arms  for  her  defense!  That  is  the  price  she 
intended  to  make  us  pay  for  our  baseness  if  we 
had  the  infamy  to  repudiate  our  signature  as 
Prussia  repudiated  hers  by  tearing  up  the  treaty 
that  guaranteed  the  neutrality  of  Belgium ! 

It  was  explained  that  the  above  document  has 
not  previously  been  published,  because  the  code 
181 


APPENDICES 

could  not  be  deciphered :  the  French  Foreign  Office 
succeeded  only  a  few  days  before  in  decodifying 
the  document. 

Moreover,  Herr  von  Bethmann  Hollweg,  on 
March  18,  1918,  acknowledged  the  accuracy  of 
M.  Pichon's  quotation  and  contented  himself  to 
declare  that  "his  instructions  to  Von  Schoen  were 
justified.'* 


APPENDIX  ir 
HOW   GERMANS   TREAT  AN  AMBASSADOR 

This  document  is  quoted  from  the  French  "Yel- 
low Book,"  page  152  : 

From  Copenhagen 
French  Yellow  Book  No,  155 

M.  Bapst,  French  Minister  at   Copenhagen,  to 
M.  Doumergue,  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs. 

Copenhagen,  August  6,  1914. 

The  French  Ambassador  at  Berlin,  M.  Jules 
Cambon,  asks  me  to  communicate  to  your  Excel- 
lency the  following  telegram : 

I  have  been  sent  to  Denmark  by  the  German 
Government.  I  have  just  arrived  at  Copenhagen. 
I  am  accompanied  by  all  the  staff  of  the  Embassy 
and  the  Russian  Charge  d'Affaires  at  Darmstadt 
with  his  family.  The  treatment  which  we  have 
received  is  of  such  a  nature  that  I  have  thought 
183 


APPENDICES 

it  desirable  to  make  a  complete  report  on  it  to 
jour  Excellency  by  telegram. 

On  the  morning  of  Monday,  the  3rd  of  August, 
after  I  had,  in  accordance  with  your  instructions, 
addressed  to  Herr  von  Jagow  a  protest  against 
the  acts  of  aggression  committed  on  French  ter- 
ritory by  German  troops,  the  Secretary  of  State 
came  to  see  me.  Herr  von  Jagow  came  to  com- 
plain of  acts  of  aggression  which  he  alleged  had 
been  committed  in  Germany,  especially  at  Nurem- 
berg and  Coblenz  by  French  aviators,  who  accord- 
ing to  his  statement  "had  come  from  Belgium." 
I  answered  that  I  had  not  the  slightest  informa- 
tion as  to  the  facts  to  which  he  attached  so  much 
importance  and  the  improbability  of  which 
seemed  to  me  obvious ;  on  my  part  I  asked  him 
if  he  had  read  the  note  which  I  had  addressed 
to  him  with  regard  to  the  invasion  of  our  terri- 
tory by  detachments  of  the  German  army.  As 
the  Secretary  of  State  said  that  he  had  not  yet 
read  this  note  I  explained  its  contents  to  him.  I 
called  his  attention  to  the  act  committed  by  the 
officer  commanding  one  of  the  detachments  who 
had  advanced  to  the  French  village  of  Joncherey, 
ten  kilometers  within  our  frontier,  and  had  blown 
out  the  brains  of  a  French  soldier  whom  he  had 
met  there.  After  having  given  my  opinion  of  this 
act  I  added: 

184 


APPENDICES 

"You  will  admit  that  under  no  circumstances 
could  there  be  any  comparison  between  this  and 
the  flight  of  an  aeroplane  over  foreign  territory 
carried  out  by  private  persons  animated  by  that 
spirit  of  individual  courage  by  which  aviators  are 
distinguished. 

"An  act  of  aggression  committed  on  the  terri- 
tory of  a  neighbor  by  detachments  of  regular 
troops  commanded  by  officers  assumes  an  impor- 
tance of  quite  a  different  nature." 

Herr  von  Jagow  explained  to  me  that  he  had 
no  knowledge  of  the  facts  of  which  I  was  speaking 
to  him,  and  he  added  that  it  was  difficult  for  events 
of  this  kind  not  to  take  place  when  two  armies 
filled  with  the  feelings  which  animated  our  troops 
found  themselves  face  to  face  on  either  side  of 
the  frontier. 

At  this  moment  the  crowds  which  thronged  the 
Pariser  Platz  in  front  of  the  Embassy  and  whom 
we  could  see  through  the  window  of  my  study, 
which  was  half  open,  uttered  shouts  against 
France.  I  asked  the  Secretary  of  State  when  all 
this  would  come  to  an  end. 

"The  Government  has  not  yet  come  to  a  deci- 
sion," Herr  von  Jagow  answered.  "It  is  probable 
that  Herr  von  Schoen  will  receive  orders  today  to 
ask  for  his  passports  and  then  you  will  receive 
yours."  The  Secretary  of  State  assured  me  that 
185 


APPENDICES 

I  need  not  have  any  anxiety  with  regard  to  m}' 
departure,  and  that  all  the  proprieties  would  be 
observed  with  regard  to  me  as  well  as  my  staff. 
We  were  not  to  see  one  another  any  more  and 
we  took  leave  of  one  another  after  an  interview 
which  had  been  courteous  and  could  not  make  me 
anticipate  what  was  in  store  for  me. 

Before  leaving  Herr  von  Jagow  I  expressed  to 
him  my  wish  to  make  a  personal  call  on  the  Chan- 
cellor, as  that  would  be  the  last  opportunity  that 
I  should  have  of  seeing  him. 

Herr  von  Jagow  said  that  he  did  not  advise 
me  to  carry  out  this  intention  as  the  interview 
would  serve  no  purpose  and  could  not  fail  to  be 
painful. 

At  6  o'clock  in  the  evening  Herr  von  Lang- 
werth  brought  me  my  passports.  In  the  name  of 
his  Government  he  refused  to  agree  to  the  wish 
which  I  expressed  to  him  that  I  should  be  per- 
mitted to  travel  by  Holland  or  Belgium.  He 
suggested  to  me  that  I  should  go  either  by  way 
of  Copenhagen,  although  he  could  not  assure  me 
a  free  passage  by  sea,  or  through  Switzerland  via 
Constance. 

I  accepted  this  last  route;  Herr  von  Lang- 
werth  having  asked  me  to  leave  as  soon  as  I  pos- 
sibly could  it  was  agreed,  in  consideration  of  the 
necessity  I  was  under  of  making  arrangements 
186 


APPENDICES 

with  the  Spanish  Ambassador,  who  was  under- 
taking the  charge  of  our  interests,  that  I  should 
leave  on  the  next  day,  the  4th  August,  at  10 
o'clock  at  night. 

At  7  o'clock,  an  hour  after  Herr  von  Lang- 
werth  had  left,  Herr  von  Lancken,  formerly 
Councilor  of  the  Embassy  at  Paris,  came  from 
the  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs  to  tell  me  to 
request  the  staff  of  my  Embassy  to  cease  taking 
meals  in  the  restaurants.  This  order  was  so 
strict  that  on  the  next  day,  Tuesday,  I  had  to 
have  recourse  to  the  authority  of  the  Wilhelm- 
strasse  to  get  the  Hotel  Bristol  to  send  our  meals 
to  the  Embassy. 

At  11  o'clock  on  the  same  evening,  Monday, 
Herr  von  Langwerth  came  back  to  tell  me  that 
his  Government  would  not  allow  our  return  by 
way  of  Switzerland  under  the  pretext  that  it 
would  take  three  days  and  three  nights  to  take 
me  to  Constance.  He  announced  that  I  should 
be  sent  by  way  of  Vienna.  I  only  agreed  to  this 
alteration  under  reserve,  and  during  the  night  I 
wrote  the  following  letter  to  Herr  von  Lang- 
werth : 

"Berlin,  August  3rd,  1914. 
"M.  LE  Baron, 

"I  have  been  thinking  over  the  route  for  my 
return  to  my  country  about  which  you  came  to 

187 


APPENDICES 

speak  to  me  this  evening.  You  propose  that  I 
shall  travel  by  Vienna.  I  run  the  risk  of  finding 
myself  detained  in  that  town,  if  not  by  the  action 
of  the  Austrian  Government,  at  least  owing  to  the 
mobilization  which  creates  great  difficulties  sim- 
ilar to  those  existing  in  Grermany  as  to  the  move- 
ments of  trains. 

''Under  these  circumstances  I  must  ask  the  Ger- 
man Government  for  a  promise  made  on  their 
honor  that  the  Austrian  Government  will  send 
me  to  Switzerland,  and  that  the  Swiss  Govern- 
ment will  not  close  its  frontier  either  to  me 
or  to  the  persons  by  whom  I  am  accompanied,  as 
I  am  told  that  that  frontier  has  been  firmly 
closed  to  foreigners. 

**I  cannot  then  accept  the  proposal  that  you 
have  made  to  me  unless  I  have  the  security  which 
I  ask  for,  and  unless  I  am  assured  that  I  shall 
not  be  detained  for  some  months  outside  my  coun- 
try. 

"Jules  Cambon.'* 

In  answer  to  this  letter  on  the  next  morning, 
Tuesday  the  4th  August,  Herr  von  Langwerth 
gave  me  in  writing  an  assurance  that  the  Aus- 
trian and  Swiss  authorities  had  received  com- 
munications to  this  effect. 
188 


APPENDICES 

At  the  same  time  M.  Miladowski,  attached  to 
the  Consulate  at  Berlin,  as  well  as  other  French- 
men, was  arrested  in  his  own  house  while  in  bed. 
M.  Miladowski,  for  whom  a  diplomatic  passport 
had  been  requested,  was  released  after  four  hours. 

I  was  prepared  to  leave  for  Vienna  when,  at 
a  quarter  to  five,  Herr  von  Langwerth  came  back 
to  inform  me  that  I  would  have  to  leave  with 
the  persons  accompanying  me  at  10  o'clock  in  the 
evening,  but  that  I  should  be  taken  to  Denmark. 
On  this  new  requirement  I  asked  if  I  should  be 
confined  in  a  fortress  supposing  I  did  not  comply. 
Herr  von  Langwerth  simply  answered  that  he 
would  return  to  receive  my  answer  in  half  an  hour. 
I  did  not  wish  to  give  the  German  Government 
the  pretext  for  saying  that  I  had  refused  to  de- 
part from  Germany.  I  therefore  told  Herr  von 
Langwerth  when  he  came  back  that  I  would  submit 
to  the  order  which  had  been  given  to  me  but  **that 
I  protested.'* 

I  at  once  wrote  to  Herr  von  Jagow  a  letter  of 
which  the  following  is  a  copy: 


Berlin,  August  4,  1914. 
"Sir: 

*'More  than  once  your  Excellency  has  said  to 
me  that  the  Imperial  Government,  in  accordance 

189 


APPENDICES 

with  the  usages  of  international  courtesy,  would 
facilitate  my  return  to  my  own  country,  and 
would  give  me  every  means  of  getting  back  to  it 
quickly. 

"Yesterday,  however,  Baron  von  Langwerth, 
after  refusing  me  access  to  Belgium  and  Holland, 
informed  me  that  I  should  travel  to  Switzerland 
via  Constance.  During  the  night  I  was  informed 
that  I  should  be  sent  to  Austria,  a  country  which 
is  taking  part  in  the  present  war  on  the  side  of 
Germany.  As  I  had  no  knowledge  of  the  inten- 
tions of  Austria  towards  me,  since  on  Austrian 
soil  I  am  nothing  but  an  ordinary  private  indi- 
vidual, I  wrote  to  Baron  von  Langwerth  that  I 
requested  the  Imperial  Government  to  give  me  a 
promise  that  the  Imperial  and  Royal  Austrian 
authorities  would  give  me  all  possible  facilities 
for  continuing  my  journey  and  that  Switzerland 
would  not  be  closed  to  me.  Herr  von  Langwerth 
has  been  good  enough  to  answer  me  in  writing 
that  I  could  be  assured  of  an  easy  journey  and 
that  the  Austrian  authorities  would  do  all  that 
was  necessary. 

"It  is  nearly  &ve  o'clock,  and  Baron  von  Lang- 
werth has  just  announced  to  me  that  I  shall  be  sent 
to  Denmark.  In  view  of  the  present  situation, 
there  is  no  security  that  I  shall  find  a  ship  to  take 
me  to  England  and  it  is  this  consideration  which 
190 


APPENDICES 

made  me  reject  this  proposal  with  the  approval 
of  Herr  von  Langwerth. 

"In  truth  no  liberty  is  left  me  and  I  am  treated 
almost  as  a  prisoner.  I  am  obliged  to  submit,  hav- 
ing no  means  of  obtaining  that  the  rules  of  inter- 
national courtesy  should  be  observed  towards  me, 
but  I  hasten  to  protest  to  your  Excellency  against 
the  manner  in  which  I  am  being  treated. 

"Jules   Cambon." 

Whilst  my  letter  was  being  delivered  I  was  told 
that  the  journey  would  not  be  made  direct  but  by 
way  of  Schleswig.  At  10  o'clock  in  the  evening,  I 
left  the  Embassy  with  my  staff  in  the  middle  of  a 
great  assembly  of  foot  and  mounted  police. 

At  the  station  the  Ministry  for  Foreign  Affairs 
was  only  represented  by  an  officer  of  inferior  rank. 

The  journey  took  place  with  extreme  slowness. 
We  took  more  than  twenty-four  hours  to  reach 
the  frontier.  It  seemed  that  at  every  station 
they  had  to  wait  for  orders  to  proceed.  I  was  ac- 
companied by  Major  von  Rheinbaben  of  the 
Alessandra  Regiment  of  the  Guard  and  by  a  police 
officer.  In  the  neighborhood  of  the  Kiel  Canal  the 
soldiers  entered  our  carriages.  The  windows  were 
shut  and  the  curtains  of  the  carriages  drawn 
down;  each  of  us  had  to  remain  isolated  in  his 
compartment  and  was  forbidden  to  get  up  or  ta 

191 


APPENDICES 

touch  his  luggage.  A  soldier  stood  in  the  cor- 
ridor of  the  carriage  before  the  door  of  each  of 
our  compartments  which  were  kept  open,  revolver 
in  hand  and  finger  on  the  trigger.  The  Russian 
Charge  d'Affaires,  the  women  and  children  and 
everyone  were  subjected  to  the  same  treatment. 
At  the  last  German  station  about  11  o'clock 
at  night,  Major  von  Rheinbaben  came  to  take 
leave  of  me.  I  handed  to  him  the  following  letter 
to  Herr  von  Jagow. 

"Wednesday  Evening,  August  5,  1914. 
"Sm: 

"Yesterday  before  leaving  Berlin,  I  protested  in 
writing  to  your  Excellency  against  the  repeated 
change  of  route  which  was  imposed  upon  me  by 
the  Imperial  Government  on  my  journey  from 
Germany. 

"Today  as  the  train  in  which  I  was  passed  over 
the  Kiel  Canal  an  attempt  was  made  to  search  all 
our  luggage  as  if  we  might  have  hidden  some  in- 
strument of  destruction.  Thanks  to  the  interfer- 
ence of  Major  von  Rheinbaben,  we  were  spared 
this  insult.     But  they  went  further. 

"They  obliged  us  to  remain  each  in  his  own 

compartment,  the  windows  and  blinds  having  been 

closed.     During  this  time,  in  the  corridors  of  the 

carriages  at  the  door  of  each  compartment  and 

192 


APPENDICES 

facing  each  one  of  us,  stood  a  soldier,  revolver  in 
hand,  finger  on  the  trigger,  for  nearly  half  an 
hour. 

*'I  consider  it  my  duty  to  protect  against  this 
threat  of  violence  to  the  Ambassador  of  the  Re- 
public and  the  staff  of  his  Embassy,  violence  which 
nothing  could  even  have  made  me   anticipate. 

"Yesterday  I  had  the  honor  of  writing  to 
your  Excellency  that  I  was  being  treated  almost 
as  a  prisoner.  Today  I  am  being  treated  as  a 
dangerous  prisoner.  Also  I  must  record  that 
during  our  journey  which  from  Berlin  to  Den- 
mark has  taken  twenty-four  hours,  no  food  has 
been  prepared  nor  provided  for  me  nor  for  the 
persons  who  were  traveling  with  me  to  the 
frontier. 

"Jules   Cambon." 

I  thought  that  our  troubles  had  finished,  when 
shortly  afterwards  Major  von  Rheinbaben  came, 
rather  embarrassed,  to  inform  me  that  the  train 
would  not  proceed  to  the  Danish  frontier  if  I 
did  not  pay  the  cost  of  this  train.  I  expressed 
my  astonishment  that  I  had  not  been  made  to  pay 
at  Berlin  and  that  at  any  rate  I  had  not  been 
forewarned  of  this.  I  offered  to  pay  by  a  cheque 
on  one  of  the  largest  Berlin  banks.  This  facility 
was  refused  me.    With  the  help  of  my  companions 

193 


APPENDICES 

I  was  able  to  collect,  in  gold,  the  sum  which  was 
required  from  me  at  once,  and  which  amounted 
to  3,611  marks,  75  pfennig.  This  is  about  5,000 
francs  in  accordance  with  the  present  rate  of 
exchange. 

After  this  last  incident,  I  thought  it  necessary 
to  ask  Major  von  Rheinbaben  for  his  word  of 
honor  as  an  officer  and  a  gentleman  that  we 
should  be  taken  to  the  Danish  frontier.  He  gave 
it  to  me,  and  I  required  that  the  policeman  who 
was  with  us  should  accompany  us. 

In  this  way  we  arrived  at  the  first  Danish  sta- 
tion, where  the  Danish  Government  had  had  a 
train  made  ready  to  take  us  to  Copenhagen. 

I  am  assured  that  my  British  colleague  and  the 
Belgian  Minister,  although  they  left  Berlin  after 
I  did,  traveled  by  the  direct  route  to  Holland. 
I  am  struck  by  this  difference  of  treatment,  and 
as  Denmark  and  Norway  are,  at  this  moment,  in- 
fested with  spies,  if  I  succeed  in  embarking  in 
Norway,  there  is  danger  that  I  may  be  arrested 
at  sea  with  the  officials  who  accompany  me. 

I  do  not  wish  to  conclude  this  dispatch  with- 
out notifying  your  Excellency  of  the  energy  and 
devotion  of  which  the  whole  staff  of  the  Embassy 
has  given  unceasing  proof  during  the  course  of 
this  crisis.  I  shall  be  glad  that  account  should 
be  taken  of  the  services  which  on  this  occasion 
194 


APPENDICES 

have  been  rendered  to  the  Government  of  the 
Republic,  in  particular  by  the  Secretaries  of  the 
Embassy  and  by  the  Military  and  Naval  At- 
taches. 

Jules  Cambon. 


APPENDIX  in 
HOW  GERMANS  ARE   WAGING  WAR 

The  French  Government,  as  soon  as  it  heard  of 
the  first  German  atrocities,  instituted  a  Conunis- 
sion  of  inquiry  composed  of  three  high  French 
magistrates:  Mr.  Georges  Payelle,  President  of 
the  Cour  des  Comptes,  Mr.  Georges  Maringer, 
Councilor  of  State,  and  Mr.  Edmond  Paillot, 
Councilor  of  the  Cour  of  Cassation.  That  Com- 
mission proceeded  to  the  spot  where  the  atrocities 
had  been  perpetrated  and  heard  witnesses,  who  de- 
posed under  oath. 

All  evidence  and  proceedings  have  been  printed 
and  fill  up  ten  heavy  volumes. 

Among  many  depositions,  the  following  one, 
taken  the  twenty-third  of  October,  1915,  at  Paris, 
will  give  an  idea  of  the  horrors  to  which  the  in- 
vaded regions  of  France  were  submitted. 

Duren  Virginie,  wife  of  Berard  Durem,  29  years 
196 


APPENDICES 

of  age,  inhabitant  of  Jarny  in  the  Department 
of  Meurthe  et  Moselle,  a  refugee  at  Levallois- 
Perret : 

I  swear  to  tell  the  truth  and  nothing  but  the 
truth. 

On  the  25th  of  August,  1914,  the  sixty-sixth 
and  sixty-eighth  Bavarian  regiments  were  quar- 
tered together  at  Jarny.  I  was  ordered  to  bring 
water  for  the  soldiers,  so  went  in  search  of  a 
large  number  of  water  pails.  At  three  o'clock  in 
the  afternoon  an  officer,  who  met  me,  told  me  I  had 
carried  enough  water  and  ordered  me  to  go  back 
to  my  house.  As  the  Germans  were  firing  on  our 
house  with  mitrailleuses,  I  took  refuge  in  the  cel- 
lar with  my  two  sons,  Jean,  aged  six,  and  Maurice, 
aged  two,  and  also  my  daughter  Jeanne,  nine 
years  of  age.  The  Aufiero  family  was  also  there. 
Soon  petrol  was  poured  over  the  house ;  it  got  into 
the  cellar  through  the  air-hole,  and  we  were  sur- 
rounded by  flames.  I  saved  myself,  carrying  my 
two  little  boys  in  my  arms,  while  my  daughter 
and  little  Beatrice  Aufiero  ran  along  holding  on 
to  my  skirt.  As  we  were  crossing  the  Rougeval 
brook,  which  runs  near  my  house,  the  Bavarians 
fired  on  us.  My  little  Jean,  whom  I  was  carrying, 
was  struck  by  three  bullets,  one  in  the  right  thigh, 

197 


APPENDICES 

one  in  the  ankle,  and  one  in  the  chest.  The  thigh 
was  almost  shot  away,  and  from  the  place  where 
the  bullet  through  his  chest  came  out  the  lung 
projected.  The  poor  child  said,  "Oh,  Mother,  I 
have  a  pain,"  and  in  a  moment  he  was  dead.  At 
the  same  time  little  Beatrice  had  her  arm  broken 
so  badly  that  it  was  attached  to  her  shoulder  only 
by  a  piece  of  flesh,  and  Angele  Aufiero,  a  boy  of 
nine  years,  who  followed  a  short  distance  behind 
us,  was  wounded  in  the  calf  of  the  leg.  Little 
Beatrice  suffered  cruelly  and  wept  bitterly,  but 
she  did  not  fall  down,  continuing  to  go  along  with 
me. 

While  these  things  were  taking  place,  the  Perig- 
non  family,  which  lived  next  door  to  us,  was 
massacred. 

When  they  were  no  longer  shooting  at  us,  I 
tried  to  wash  my  baby,  who  was  covered  with 
blood,  in  the  brook;  but  a  soldier  prevented  me, 
shouting,  "Get  away  from  there." 

Finally  we  got  to  the  road.  Meanwhile  they 
were  driving  M.  Aufiero  out  of  the  cellar.  The 
Germans,  who  spoke  French  after  a  fashion,  said 
to  his  wife,  "Come  see  your  husband  get  shot." 
The  poor  man,  on  his  knees,  asked  for  mercy,  and 
as  his  wife  shrieked  "My  poor  Come,"  the  soldiers 
said  to  her,  "Shut  your  mouth."  His  execution 
took  place  very  near  us. 

198 


APPENDICES 

The  Bavarians  sent  me,  my  children,  Mme.  Aufi- 
ero  and  her  daughter  to  a  meadow  near  the  Pont- 
de-PEtang.  A  general  ordered  that  we  be  shot, 
but  I  threw  myself  at  his  feet,  begging  him  to  be 
merciful.  He  consented.  At  this  moment  an  offi- 
cer, wearing  a  great  gray  cloak  with  a  red  collar, 
said,  as  he  pointed  to  the  dead  body  of  my  child, 
"There  is  one  who  will  not  grow  up  to  fight  our 
men." 

The  next  day,  in  my  flight  to  Barriere  Zeller, 
an  officer  came  up  and  told  me  that  the  body  of 
my  dead  child  smelled  badly  and  that  I  must  get 
rid  of  it.  Since  I  could  find  no  one  to  make  a 
coffin,  I  found  in  the  canteen  two  rabbit  hutches. 
I  fastened  one  of  these  to  the  other,  and  there  I 
laid  the  little  body.  It  was  buried  in  my  garden 
by  two  soldiers,  and  I  had  to  dig  the  grave  my- 
self. 


APPENDIX  IV 

HOW   GERMANS   OCCUPY  THE  TERRITORY 

OF   AN   ENEMY 

In  the  first  days  of  April,  1916,  the  following 
notice,  bearing  the  signature  of  the  German  com- 
mander, was  posted  on  all  the  walls  of  Lille,  the 
great  town  in  the  north  of  France  which  has  been 
occupied  by  the  Germans  since  the  beginning  of 
the  war. 

All  the  inhabitants  of  the  town,  except  the  chil- 
dren under  fourteen  years  of  age,  their  mothers, 
and  the  old  men,  must  prepare  to  be  transported 
within  an  hour  and  a  half. 

An  officer  will  decide  definitely  which  persons 
shall  be  conducted  to  the  camps  of  assembly.  For 
this  purpose,  all  the  inhabitants  must  assemble 
in  front  of  their  homes,  in  case  of  bad  weather 
they  shall  be  permitted  to  stay  in  the  lobbies. 
The  doors  of  the  houses  must  be  left  open.  All 
200 


APPENDICES 

complaints  will  be  unavailing.  No  inhabitant  of 
a  house,  even  those  who  are  not  to  be  transported, 
can  leave  the  house  before  eight  o'clock  in  the 
morning  (German  time). 

Each  person  may  take  thirty  kilograms  of  bag- 
gage with  him.  Should  there  be  any  excess  over 
this  amount,  all  that  person's  baggage  will  be 
refused  regardless  of  everything.  Separate  pack- 
ages must  be  made  up  by  each  person,  and  a  visibly 
written,  firmly  secured  address  must  be  on  each 
package.  The  address  must  bear  the  person's 
name,  surname,  and  the  number  of  his  identifica- 
tion card. 

It  is  very  necessary  for  each  person  to  provide 
himself  with  utensils  for  eating  and  drinking,  also 
with  a  woolen  blanket  and  some  good  shoes  and 
some  linen.  Each  person  must  have  on  his  person 
his  identification  card.  Whoever  shall  attempt  to 
evade  deportation  shall  be  punished  without  mercy. 

EtAPPEN KOMMANDANTUR 

The  threat  contained  in  the  notice  cited  here 
was  carried  out  to  the  letter.  Here  is  an  account 
of  it  from  the  communication  addressed  by  M. 

D ,  formerly  the  receveur  particuUer  of  Lille, 

to  M.  Cambon,  formerly  the  French  Ambassador 
to  Berlin: 

SOI 


APPENDICES 

On  Good  Friday  night  at  three  o'clock  the 
troops  who  were  going  to  occupy  the  designated 
section.  Fives,  came  through  our  houses.  It  was 
dreadful.  An  officer  passed  by,  pointing  out  the 
men  and  women  whom  he  chose,  leaving  them  a 
space  of  time  amounting  to  an  hour  in  some  cases 
and  ten  minutes  in  others,  to  prepare  themselves 
for  their  journey. 

Antoine  D .  . .  .  and  his  sister,  twenty-two  years 
of  age,  were  taken  away.  The  Germans  did  not 
want  to  leave  behind  the  younger  daughter  in  the 
family,  who  was  not  fourteen.  Their  grand- 
mother, ill  with  sorrow  and  terror,  had  to  be  cared 
for  at  once.  Finally  they  met  the  young  daughter 
coming  back.  In  one  case  an  old  man  and  two 
infirm  persons  could  not  keep  the  daughter  who 
was  their  sole  support.  And  everywhere  the 
enemy  sneered,  adding  vexatious  annoyance  to 
their  hateful  task.  In  the  house  of  the  doctor,  who 
is  B.'s  uncle,  they  gave  his  wife  the  choice  between 
two  maids.  She  preferred  the  elder  and  they  said, 
"Well,  then  she  is  the  one  we  are  going  to  take.'* 
Mile.  L.,  the  young  one  who  has  just  got  over 
typhoid  and  bronchitis,  saw  the  non-commissioned 
officer  who  took  away  her  nurse  coming  up  to  her. 
"What  a  sad  task  they  are  making  us  do."  "More 
than  sad,  sir,  it  could  be  called  barbarous."  **That 
is  a  hard  word,  are  you  not  afraid  that  I  will  sell 
£0d 


APPENDICES 

you?"  As  a  matter  of  fact  the  wretch  denounced 
her.  They  allowed  her  seven  minutes  and  took  her 
away  bare-headed,  just  as  she  was,  to  the  Colonel 
who  commanded  this  noble  battle  and  who  also 
ordered  her  to  go,  against  the  advice  of  a  physi- 
cian. Only  on  account  of  her  tireless  energy  and 
the  sense  of  decency  of  one  who  was  less  ferocious 
than  the  rest,  did  she  obtain  permission,  at  five 
o'clock  in  the  afternoon,  to  be  discharged,  after 
a  day  which  had  been  a  veritable  Calvary.  The 
poor  wretches  at  whose  door  a  sentry  watched, 
were  collected  together  at  some  place  or  other,  a 
Church  or  a  school.  Then  the  mob  of  all  sorts 
and  conditions  of  people,  or  all  grades  of  social 
standing,  respectable  young  girls  and  women  of 
the  street,  was  driven  to  the  station  escorted  by 
soldiers  marching  at  the  head  of  the  procession. 
From  there  they  were  taken  off  in  the  evening 
without  knowing  where  they  were  going  or  for 
what  work  they  were  destined. 

And  in  the  face  of  all  this  our  people  evidenced 
restraint  and  admirable  dignity,  although  they 
were  provoked  that  day  by  seeing  the  automobiles 
going  around  which  were  taking  away  these  un- 
fortunate people.  They  all  went  away  shouting 
"Vive  la  France.  Vive  la  Liberte!"  and  singing 
the  Marseillaise.  They  cheered  up  those  who  re- 
mained ;  their  poor  mothers  who  were  weeping,  and 


APPENDICES 

the  children.  With  voices  almost  strangled  with 
tears,  and  pale  with  suffering,  they  told  them  not 
to  cry  as  they  themselves  would  not;  but  bore 
themselves  proudly  in  the  presence  of  their  ex- 
ecutioners. 

Another  document  shows  better  than  all  this 
talking  the  treatment  the  French  have  been  re- 
ceiving from  the  Germans  for  over  thirty  months. 
This  document  is  a  German  notice  which  was 
found  at  Holnon,  northwest  of  St.  Quentin.  The 
document  bore  the  official  seal  of  the  German  com- 
mander. 

Holnon,  £Oth  July,  1915. 

All  workmen,  women  and  children  over  fifteen 
years  of  age  must  work  in  the  fields  every  day, 
also  on  Sunday,  from  four  o'clock  in  the  morning 
until  eight  o'clock  at  night,  French  time.  For 
rest  they  shall  have  a  half-hour  in  the  morning,  an 
hour  at  noon  and  a  half-hour  in  the  afternoon. 
Failure  to  obey  this  order  will  be  punished  in  the 
following  manner: — 

1. — ^The  men  who  are  lazy  will  be  collected  for 
the  period  of  the  harvest  in  a  company  of  work- 
men under  the  inspection  of  German  corporals. 
After  the  harvest  the  lazy  will  be  imprisoned  for 
^04 


APPENDICES 

six  months  and  every  third  day  their  nourishment 
shall  be  only  bread  and  water. 

2. — ^Lazy  women  shall  be  exiled  to  Holnon  to 
work.  After  the  harvest  the  women  will  be  im- 
prisoned six  months. 

3. — The  children  who  do  not  work  shall  be  pun- 
ished with  blows  from  a  club. 

Furthermore,  the  commandant  reserves  the 
right  to  punish  men  who  do  not  work  with  twenty 
blows  from  a  club  daily. 

Workmen  in  the  Commune  of  Verdelles  have  been 
punished  severely. 

(Signed)    Glose, 
Colonel  and  Commandant. 


APPENDIX   V 
HOW    GERMANS    TREAT      ALSACE-LORRAINE 

Von  Bethmann-HoUweg,  Count  von  Hertling 
and  Herr  von  Kuhlmann  state  that  Alsace-Lor- 
raine is  a  province  of  the  German  Empire  by 
right  and  by  fact,  and  that  it  is  firmly  attached 
to  Germany. 

The  following  picture  shows  how  this  Germem 
province  is  treated  by  Germany: 

Treatment  of  the  Civilian  PopvZation 

The  Government  has  established  for  the  dura- 
tion of  the  war  an  insurmountable  barrier  between 
Alsace-Lorraine,  which  is  called  a  territory  of  the 
Empire,  and  the  rest  of  the  German  states. 
Briefly,  Alsace-Lorraine  is  treated  as  a  suspect. 

An  inhabitant  of  Alsace-Lorraine  can  not  mail 
his  letters  in  Germany.  For  example,  Wissem- 
bourg  is  on  the  border  of  the  Palatinate.     There 

me 


APPENDICES 

is  a  great  temptation  for  the  citizens  of  this  town 
to  assure  a  rapid  delivery  of  their  letters  and  their 
escape  from  annoying  censorship  by  making  use 
of  the  German  mall  system.     A  music  teacher, 

Mile.  Lina  Sch was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine 

of  one  hundred  marks  in  March,  1917,  for  an  in- 
fraction of  this  sort.  The  war  council  at  Saar- 
bruck,  which  pronounced  this  sentence,  had  al- 
ready, in  June,  1916,  sentenced  for  like  cause,  the 
Spanish  Consul,  to  the  payment  of  a  fine  of  eighty 
marks  because  he  had  allowed  a  citizen  of  Sarre- 
guimine  to  have  letters  to  his  sons,  who  were  refu- 
gees at  Lausanne,  addressed  to  the  Spanish  Con- 
sulate. 

In  addition,  German  hostility  to  the  Alsatians 
is  shown  by  a  number  of  childish  measures  against 
Alsatian  uniforms  and  costumes,  in  proportion 
as  they  resemble  the  French. 

In  all  seriousness  the  question  arose  of  forbid- 
ding the  Catholic  Clergy  to  wear  the  soutane,  as 
it  was  the  custom  in  the  Latin  countries.  It  was 
given  up;  but  steps  were  taken  in  the  case  of  the 
firemen. 


APPENDICES 

The  NowoeUe  Gazette  of  Strassburg  published 
an  official  notice,  dated  the  ninth  of  December, 
1915,  which  emphasized  an  order  suppressing  the 
uniforms  worn  by  the  Alsatian  firemen  because  the 
cut  was  French,  as  was  the  cap,  and  complained 
that  this  order  was  not  everywhere  observed: 

Recently,  in  the  course  of  a  fire  which  broke  out 
near  Molsheim,  it  is  an  established  fact  that  the 
firemen  wore  their  old  Alsatian  uniforms,  and  that 
the  fire  alarm  was  sounded  by  means  of  the  old 
clarions  of  the  type  in  use  in  France.  The  Kreis- 
direction  finds  itself  obliged  to  insist  that  the  sup- 
pressed uniforms  disappear,  and  that  the  clarions 
do  likewise;  and  to  ask  that  it  be  informed  of 
contraventions  that  happen  in  the  future. 

Other  societies  and  associations,  such  as  the 
singing  societies  which  frequently  still  wear  uni- 
forms recalling  those  of  the  French  collegians, 
ought  to  lay  aside  the  forbidden  garments,  which 
are  to  be  entrusted  to  the  guard  of  the  police. 

But  these  puerilities  seem  insignificant  com- 
pared to  other  things  to  which  the  people  of  Al- 
sace-Lorraine have  been  subjected,  things  which 
unite  them  more  firmly  than  ever  to  the  French  and 
the  Belgians  of  the  invaded  regions. 
208 


APPENDICES 

The  great  deportations  which  have  been  prac- 
ticed in  France  and  Belgium  have  been  repeated 
in  Alsace  as  recently  as  January,  1917.  The  in- 
habitants of  Miilhausen  between  the  ages  of  seven- 
teen and  sixty  years  were  assembled  in  the  bar- 
racks at  that  place,  whence  they  were  sent  into 
the  interior  of  Germany. 

This  proceeding  has  been  practiced  on  a  large 
scale  since  the  war's  beginning.  Preventive  im- 
prisonment, called  Schutzhafty  was  applied  to 
Messin  Samain,  who  was  first  incarcerated  at 
Cologne  and  then  sent  to  the  Russian  front,  where 
he  was  killed.  It  was  also  applied  to  M.  Bourson, 
former  correspondent  of  Le  Matin,  who  is  interned 
at  Cannstatt  in  Wurtemburg.  Other  citizens, 
after  having  been  held  in  prison  for  weeks  and 
months,  have  been  exiled  finally  into  Germany. 

The  Germans  themselves  have  been  so  demor- 
alized by  the  regime  they  have  established  that  the 
authorities  have  had  to  put  a  check  on  anonymous 
denunciations,  almost  all  of  which  were  false,  by 
an  official  communique  published  in  the  Gazette  de 
Hagencm  for  the  sixth  of  December,  1916. 
209 


APPENDICES 

The  story  of  how  the  civilian  population  has 
been  treated  will  only  be  known  in  its  entirety  later 
on.  The  government  has,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
forbidden  the  press  to  publish  accounts  of  the  war 
councils'  debates  because  the  population,  far  from 
being  terrified  by  them,  would  find  in  them  laugh- 
ing matter. 

It  is  estimated  that  the  people  of  Alsace-Lor- 
raine have  served  in  actual  hours  more  than  five 
thousand  years  in  prison.  Here  are  some  crimes 
committed  by  them: 

M.  Giessmann,  an  old  man  seventy  years  old, 
saluted  French  prisoners  in  a  Strassburg  street: 
Sentence,  six  weeks  in  prison. 

Guillaume  Kohler,  an  infantry  soldier  from 
Saverne,  during  a  journey  in  Germany,  censured 
the  inhuman  manner  in  which  certain  Grerman  of- 
ficers treated  their  men  at  the  front.  The  council 
at  Saarbruck  sentenced  him  to  two  years  in 
prison. 

Emilie  Zimmerle,  a  cook  at  Kolmar,  sang  an 
anti-German  song  as  she  washed  out  her  pots. 
Thirty  marks  fine. 

210 


APPENDICES 

Mile.  Stern,  the  daughter  of  a  pastor  at  Mul- 
house,  spoke  against  the  violation  of  Belgium. 
One  month  in  prison. 

Abbe  Theophile  Selier,  cure  at  Levencourt,  for 
the  same  offense,  six  weeks  in  prison. 

Even  children  and  young  girls  have  been  pun- 
ished for  peccadillos  that  were  absolutely  untrue. 

The  Metz  Zeitimg  for  the  twenty-second  of  Oc- 
tober mentions  the  sentences  pronounced  against 
Juliette  F.  de  Vigy,  eighteen  years  old,  a  pupil  in 

the    commercial    school,    and    Georgette    S , 

twenty-three  years  old,  a  shop  girl,  dwellers  at 
Mouilly.  Having  gone  one  morning  to  the  station 
at  Metz,  they  saw  some  French  prisoners  in  a 
train  to  whom  they  spoke  and  at  whom  they  "made 
eyes.** 

Juliette  F ,  the  more  guilty  of  the  two,  was 

sentenced   to  pay   a  fine   of  eighty   marks,   and 

Georgette    S to   pay    one    of   forty   marks, 

because  "acting  this  way  to  prisoners  of  war  exer- 
cises a  particularly  disturbing  effect  on  them." 

Two  little  girls  of  Kolmar,  named  Grass  and 
211 


APPENDICES 

Broly,  were  arrested  for  "having  answered,  by 
waving  their  hands,  kisses  French  prisoners  threw 
to  them." 

A  boy  fifteen  years  old,  pupil  in  the  upper 
school  at  Mulhouse,  named  Jean  Ingold,  who,  in 
the  classroom  tore  down  the  portrait  of  the  Em- 
peror and  painted  French  flags  on  the  wall  with 
the  inscription  "Vive  la  France,"  was  condemned 
to  a  month  in  prison.  The  War  Council  saw  an 
aggravating  circumstance  in  the  fact  that  Jean's 
father  "occupies  a  very  lucrative  position  as  a 
German  functionary." 

On  the  thirtieth  of  March,  1916,  two  sisters 
from  Guebwiller — Sister  Edwina,  nee  Bach, 
Mother  Superior,  and  Sister  Emertine,  nee  Eck- 
ert,  were  charged  with  anti-German  manifestations 
for  having  treated  as  lies  the  figures  regarding 
French  and  Russian  prisoners  sent  out  in  the 
German  communiques,  for  having  protested 
against  the  bombardment  of  Rheims  Cathedral, 
for  having  treated  as  false  the  German  victories 
that  had  been  announced,  and  for  having  said  on 
the  subject  of  the  German  invasion  of  Belgium, 
212 


APPENDICES 

"How  can  they  attack  a  country  that  asked  for 
nothing?'* 

The  result  was  that  they  got  six  months'  im- 
prisonment. 

The  case  of  Mme.  Berthe  Judlin,  in  the  faith  Sis- 
ter Valentine,  is  more  tragic. 

The  Mulhouse  newspapers  have  published  the 
account  of  the  proceedings  in  the  case  of  this 
Sister  before  the  War  Council.  It  appears  that 
she  has  been  the  victim  of  monstrous  calumnies, 
and  that  her  fate  can  well  be  compared  to  that  of 
Miss  Edith  Cavell. 

She  was  accused  of  having,  from  the  ninth  to 
the  fourteenth  of  August  when  she  was  assigned 
to  the  convent  of  the  Redemptorists  at  Riedi- 
shiem,  favored  the  French  wounded  at  the  expense 
of  the  German  wounded.  These  accusations,  which 
specified  in  particular,  that  she  had  taken  vari- 
ous objects  away  from  one  wounded  man  (a 
charge  the  prosecution  withdrew)  and  that  she  hid 
the  cartridges  of  the  French  wounded  in  the 
attic,  were  contested  by  Sister  Valentine.  After 
the  testimony  of  the  witnesses,  nine  for  the  prose- 
213 


APPENDICES 

cution  and  fourteen  for  the  defendant,  the  govern- 
ment commissioner  asked  that  she  be  punished 
with  a  sentence  of  fifteen  years  at  hard  labor  and 
ten  years  of  deprivation  of  civil  rights.  Her 
lawyer  asked  for  her  acquittal.  The  War  Coun- 
cil on  the  fourteenth  of  December,  1915,  after  an 
hour  and  a  quarter's  deliberation,  decided  that 
**Sister  Valentine  has  done  harm  to  the  German 
Army"  and  has  hidden  the  cartridges.  It  con- 
demned Sister  Valentine  to  "five  years  of  hard 
labor  and  five  years'  deprivation  of  civil  rights." 

The  War  on  the  French  Langiiage 

The  Germans  never  cease  recalling  and  von 
Hertling  has  just  repeated  the  fact  that  eighty- 
seven  per  cent  of  the  Alsatians  speak  German.  It 
is  strange,  then,  that  the  German  reign  of  terror 
has  manifested  itself  in  one  particular  against  the 
use  of  French,  even  in  the  region  where  French  is 
the  language  universally  spoken. 

The  fact  that  a  person  speaks  French  has  be- 
come a  special  offense,  that  of  "provocation." 
214 


APPENDICES 

And  this  offense  appears  to  be  a  frequent  one. 
On  the  twenty-second  of  February,  1916,  the 
sous-prefect  of  Boulay  gave  the  following  warning 
to  the  mayors  of  his  arrondissement : 

The  use  in  public  of  French  will  be  considered 
a  "provocation"  when  used  by  persons  who  know 
enough  German  to  make  themselves  understood  or 
who  can  have  recourse  to  persons  who  understand 
German  as  intermediaries. 

The  War  Council  Extraordinary  at  Metz,  in 
consequence  handed  down  a  decision  condemning 
two  women  to  fourteen  days  in  prison  because,  in 
a  manner  that  gave  "provocation,"  they  spoke 
French  in  a  trolley  car  in  spite  of  the  warnings 
of  the  conductress. 

In  addition,  the  War  Council  Extraordinary  at 
Strassburg  fined  a  salesman  who  "not  only  let  a 
French  label  remain  on  his  packages,  but  had 
put  a  French  label  on  a  package  addressed  to  a 
customer  who  understood  German." 

A  little  girl  from  Bourg-B  ruche  who,  although 
she  spoke  German,  used  the  French  language  in 
S15 


APPENDICES 

spite  of  repeated  warnings,  had  a  sentence  of 
detention  inflicted  on  her  by  the  same  tribunal. 

The  Mulhouse  Tageblatt  for  the  twenty- third 
of  September,  1917,  announced  that  women  who 
had  conversed  to  one  another  in  French  in  public 
had  been  condemned  to  from  two  to  three  weeks 
imprisonment  by  the  War  Council  at  Thionville. 

Another  person  who  had  made  a  usage  of  the 
French  language  that  gave  grounds  for  "provo- 
cation," was  condemned  to  pay  a  fine  of  fifty  marks 
or  serve  ten  days  in  prison. 

The  Oherelsaessische  Landeszeitung  for  the 
twelfth  and  twenty-sixth  of  October  published  the 
following  sentences:  "Fines  of  twenty  and  ten 
marks  to  the  venders  A.  Nemarg  and  M.  Cahen 
for  having  spoken  to  a  convoy  of  French  officers 
in  the  station  at  Thionville." 

Twenty  and  thirty  marks  fine  to  Amelie  Bany 
and  Catherine  Jacques  of  Knutange  "for  having 
spoken  French  although  they  understood  Ger- 
man." 

The  Mayor  of  Broque,  a  commune  where  French 
is  spoken,  was  sentenced  to  three  months'  im- 
216 


APPENDICES 

prisonment  for  having  spoken  French  to  his  coun- 
cilors. 

In  Alsace  this  campaign  against  the  French 
language  is  carried  even  into  the  girls'  boariding 
schools,  which  have  always  been  the  principal 
centers  for  the  study  of  French. 

An  order  from  the  Statthalter,  dated  March 
tenth,  1915,  forbade  French  conversations  in  the 
schools. 

A  German  pastor  of  the  Lutheran  Church 
named  Curtius,  who  had  opposed  suppressing  the 
old  parish  of  Saint  Nicholas  at  Strassburg,  was 
removed.  His  successor,  who  was  better  disci- 
plined, gave  in  to  the  measure  that  was  demanded. 

The  war  against  the  French  language  has  been 
marked  by  the  suppression  of  all  French  news- 
papers since  the  war's  beginning,  the  Journal 
d* Alsace-Lorraine,  the  Messin,  the  NouveUiste  d'- 
Alsace-Lorraine.  But  nothing  shows  better  the 
necessity  of  having  organs  of  public  opinion  in 
French  than  the  establishment  at  Metz  of  the 
Gazette  d^ Alsace-Lorraine  by  the  government, 
which  served  as  a  model  for  the  Gazette  des  Ar- 
^17 


APPENDICES 

dermes,  founded  later  on  at  Mezieres,  to  demoral- 
ize the  inhabitants  of  the  invaded  districts  in  the 
north  and  west  of  France. 

The  Treatment  of  the  Soldiers  from  Alsace" 
Lorrame 

The  soldiers  from  Alsace-Lorraine,  whose  loyal- 
ty was  proclaimed  at  the  war's  beginning,  have,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  been  treated  like  spies  and  em- 
bryo deserters. 

In  August,  1915,  at  the  opening  of  the  Alsa- 
tian parliament,  the  Statthalter  denounced  the 
anti-patriotism  of  a  part  of  the  population  and 
stigmatized  the  "traitors"  who  had  "gone  over 
to  the  enemy." 

In  fact,  no  less  than  fourteen  thousand  Alsa- 
tians, in  the  face  of  manifold  perils  and  difficulties, 
had  rejoined  the  colors  of  their  true  country. 
All  the  newspapers  of  Alsace-Lorraine  still  pub- 
lish the  lists  of  them  as  citizens  and  of  their  be- 
longings as  "refractory  individuals." 

The  movement  has  never  stopped.  During  the 
thirty-second  month  of  the  war,  on  the  fourteenth 
218 


APPENDICES 

of  March,  1917,  General  von  Nassner,  command- 
ant for  the  district  of  Saarbruck,  published  the 
following  extraordinary  order: 

"Whoever,  after  due  examination,  has  reason 
to  believe  that  a  soldier  or  a  man  on  reprieve  pro- 
poses to  desert  and  who  can  still  prevent  the 
execution  of  this  crime,  must  without  delay  give 
notice  of  this  fact  to  the  nearest  military  or  police 
authority." 

The  Strassburg  Neueste  Nachrichten  for  the 
twenty-seventh  of  September  announced  that  the 
^^charribre  correstwnnelle  at  Kolmar  had  con- 
demned by  default  one  hundred  and  ninety  men 
from  the  arrondissements  of  Guebwiller  and  Rib- 
eauville  to  fines  of  six  hundred  marks  or  forty 
days  in  prison  for  having  failed  to  perform  their 
military  obligations." 

The  Oherelsaessische  Lcmdeszeitu/ng  for  the 
eleventh  of  October,  1917,  announced  sentences  of 
fines  of  three  thousand  marks  or  three  hundred 
days  in  prison  for  the  same  reason  against  seven 
persons. 

The  HagtLenauer  Zeitung  from  the  eleventh  to 
219 


APPENDICES 

the  twentieth  of  October  published  the  names  of 
seventeen  soldiers,  some  of  them  deserters,  the 
others  guilty  of  rebellion  in  favor  of  the  enemy 
or  of  treason. 

On  the  twenty-fifth  of  October  there  was  an- 
other list  of  deserters,  nineteen  of  whom  were  na- 
tives of  Strassburg. 

In  his  book,  "The  Martyrs  of  Alsace  and  Lor- 
raine,"  M.  Andre  Fribourg  has  fifteen  pages  taken 
from  the  lists  of  the  debates  of  the  German  war 
councils.  These  pages  are  made  up  of  the  names 
of  young  Alsatians  who  have  left  their  country 
rather  than  fight  against  France. 

Besides,  far  from  treating  the  Alsatians  en- 
rolled in  the  German  Army  like  Germans,  the 
government  has  accorded  them  a  distinctly  differ- 
ent treatment. 

It  has  sent  them  to  the  Russian  front  and  em- 
ployed them  at  the  most  dangerous  posts,  as  this 
secret  order,  from  the  Prussian  Minister  of  War 
to  the  temporary  commander  of  the  Fourteenth 
Army  Corps,  proves: 

220 


APPENDICES 

All  men  from  Alsace-Lorraine  employed  as 
secretaries,  ordnance  officers,  etc.,  must  be  relieved 
of  their  duties  and  sent  to  the  battle  front.  In 
the  future,  all  the  men  from  Alsace-Lorraine  will 
be  sent  to  the  "General  Kommando,"  who  will 
send  them  at  once  to  the  units  on  the  Eastern 
Front.  This  order  to  go  into  effect  before  the  first 
of  April,  1916. 

For  the  Stellvert,  General  Kommando 
Radecke,  Major. 

Finally,  it  was  only  on  the  ninth  of  October, 
1917,  that  the  Strassburg  Neue  Zeitung  announced 
the  abolition  of  the  special  postal  control  to  which 
the  soldiers  from  Alsace-Lorraine  were  submitted 
at  the  front. 

It  is  but  just  [says  the  Freie  Presse  on  that 
occasion]  that  the  exceptional  measures  taken 
against  the  soldiers  from  Alsace-Lorraine  be 
abolished  at  last.  Among  these  measures  we  con- 
sider the  interdiction  still  in  force  for  a  man  to 
return  to  his  native  town.  And  [the  same  news- 
paper adds]  from  the  moment  that  the  bravery 
of  our  soldiers  from  Alsace-Lorraine  is  vaunted 
everywhere,  it  is  absolutely  wrong  to  reward  them 
with  scorn  and  insults. 

221 


APPENDICES 

In  the  notice  from  G.  Q.  G.  for  the  twenty-fifth 
of  November,  1917,  are  the  details  gathered  from 
the  Alsatian  prisoners  themselves  of  the  treat- 
ment their  compatriots  endure  in  the  German 
Army. 

On  the  twenty-second  of  last  June,  all  the  Al- 
satians received  orders  to  present  themselves  at 
the  F.  R.  D.  of  their  division,  where  they  were 
received  by  the  Vize  Sergeant,  flanked  by  two 
guards. 

The  former  said  to  them: 

"What !  You  have  not  yet  laid  aside  your  ac- 
coutrements; traitors,  deserters,  scoundrels,  ras- 
cals. Get  into  the  shelter  quick  where  you  can  put 
up  nine  additional  supports  for  the  roof  and 
where  you  can  kick  the  bucket  at  your  ease." 

Since  some  of  the  Alsatians  declared  that,  hav- 
ing received  nothing  to  eat  or  to  drink,  they  could 
not  work,  a  lieutenant,  who  was  summoned  by  the 
adjutant,  ran  up  with  his  riding  whip  and,  making 
one  of  them  step  forward,  beat  him  until  he  lost 
consciousness. 

Later  on  another  lieutenant  ordered  the  Vize 


APPENDICES 

Sergeant  to  "train  the  Alsatians  well.     They  are 
all  robbers  and  traitors.'* 

All  these  facts  proclaim  in  an  undeniable  man- 
ner that  the  soldiers  from  Alsace-Lorraine  are  not 
treated  like  ordinary  citizens  by  the  Grerman 
Army,  but  like  foreigners  temporarily  under  the 
domination  of  Germany. 

The  Seqiiestration  of  Troperty 

For  a  "German"  country,  Alsace-Lorraine 
seems  to  have  a  great  number  of  landowners  who 
are  French,  if  one  is  to  judge  by  the  sequestra- 
tions and  confiscations  with  which  the  authorities 
have  been  so  desperately  busy  for  three  years. 

In  fact  the  local  newspapers  contain  lists  of 
sequestrations  that  are  almost  as  long  as  the 
lists  of  deserters. 

And  these  confiscations  apply  not  only  to  the 
landowners  who  live  in  France.  A  large  number 
have  been  pronounced  against  inhabitants  of 
Alsace-Lorraine  who  live  abroad.  Orders  were 
given  them  to  reenter  the  German  Empire,  orders 
they  had  no  possible  chance  of  obeying,  but  which 


APPENDICES 

gave  the  imperial  government  an  easy  pretext  for 
pronouncing  their  denationalization  and  the  con- 
fiscation of  their  property. 

Also,  the  sequestrations  followed  by  sales  un- 
der the  hammer,  of  French  and  Alsatian  proper- 
ties were  extremely  numerous.  Among  these  prop- 
erties there  are  a  certain  number  of  considerable 
importance. 

On  the  twenty-fourth  of  August,  1916,  Les 
Dermeres  Nouvelles  de  Strasbourg^  advertised  the 
sale  under  the  hammer  of  the  properties  of  Prince 
de  Tonnay-Charente,  situated  at  Hambourg  and 
consisting  of  a  splendid  chateau,  furnished  in 
Louis  Fourteenth  style,  Gobelin  tapestries  of  great 
value,  family  portraits,  green  houses,  outhouses, 
ponds,  farms,  etc.,  etc. 

The  Strassburg  Fost  for  the  twenty-ninth  of 
October  announced  the  liquidation  sale  of  Cite 
Hof,  belonging  to  the  heirs  of  Paul  de  Greiger, 
including  "forty-two  hectares  of  fine  arable  land, 
fine  dwelling  houses,  bams  and  stables,  a  very  fine 
park,  summer  houses,  a  coach  house,  etc."  .  .  . 
"of  the  Villa  Huber,  with  a  fine  park,  servants' 


APPENDICES 

quarters,  garden,  surroundeid  by  twenty-eight  hec- 
tares of  fields." 

The  same  paper  for  the  fourth  of  October  an- 
nounces the  sale  of  the  famous  chateau  of  Robert- 
sau,  the  property  of  Mme.  Loys-Chandieu,  nee 
Pourtales,  with  two  hundred  and  thirty  hectares 
of  farm  land  and  one  hundred  and  thirty  hectares 
of  forest. 

The  Metzer  Z^itung  for  the  twentieth  of  Oc- 
tober announced  the  liquidation  of  twenty  prop- 
erties in  the  Moyeuvre  Grande  district,  and  of 
eleven  in  that  of  Sierek. 

Many  people  have  obviously  been  covetous  of 
these  French  possessions. 

On  this  subject  curious  letters  and  unceasing 
polemics  appeared  in  the  Alsatian  newspapers. 

Certain  interested  persons  complained  (S trass- 
burger  Post  for  the  third  of  November)  that  the 
time  was  so  short  that  only  the  inhabitants  of  the 
country  and  their  immediate  neighbors  had  any 
opportunity  of  profiting  by  these  occasions.  They 
remarked  with  all  justice  that  to  get  the  highest 
225 


APPENDICES 

prices  for  these  sales  there  ought  to  be  a  large 
number  of  bidders. 

For  the  farm  lands,  the  neighbors  would  suffice 
to  bring  up  the  bids  to  a  high  enough  sum,  but 
when  it  was  a  matter  of  a  magnificent  chateau, 
like  that  at  Osthofen,  with  a  garden  and  a  park, 
bidders  for  this  luxury  would  scarcely  be  found 
among  the  peasants.  The  speculators  alone  would 
step  in  and  would  acquire  for  a  mere  nothing 
properties  of  great  value.  And  the  plaintiiFs 
added,  "Is  that  desirable?" 

The  following  considerations  advanced  by  one 
of  the  plaintiffs  are  not  without  interest.  "Suf- 
ficient means  of  communication  still  remain  be- 
tween France  and  Germany.  Do  you  not  see  the 
danger  of  feigned  sales,  to  third  persons,  who 
will  buy  in  the  goods  at  small  cost  and  will  hand 
them  over  later  on  to  their  former  proprietors? 
In  this  way  the  French  influence  over  the  owner- 
ship of  the  land  will  be  reestablished  in  the  fu- 
ture." 

To  these  complaints  and  wrongs  the  Strass- 
S26 


APPENDICES 

hurger  Post  for  the  eighth  of  November  replied 
in  detail. 

It  assured  that  the  list  of  goods  to  be  disposed 
of  had  not  only  been  placed  by  the  authorities  in 
the  several  states  of  the  empire,  to  give  buyers 
time  to  take  advantage  of  possible  bargains,  but 
also  a  catalogue  of  stationary  objects  had  been 
published  in  fifteen  hundred  copies  by  Schultz 
&  Co.  of  Strassburg. 

This  catalogue  was  quickly  used  up  and  the 
demand  for  it  continued  to  come  in,  which  proved 
that  the  buyers  were  informed  in  time. 

The  newspaper  adds  that  the  things  to  be  sold 
have  been  visited  by  buyers  coming  from  old  Ger- 
many as  well  as  from  Alsace-Lorraine,  and  sales 
propositions  have  been  made  before  the  publica- 
tion of  notices  in  the  newspapers. 

It  seems,  furthermore,  that  if  the  sales  of  land 
and  the  exploitation  of  farm  lands  have  ended 
rapidly,  it  was  because  colonization  societies, 
called  "black  bands,"  have  overtly  bought  up  or 
had  bought  up  the  properties  by  their  agents,  in 
the  hope  that  their  plans  would  be  realized  after 
227 


APPENDICES 

the  war.  In  industrial  matters,  there  was  recently 
founded  in  Berlin  a  German  syndicate  which  pro- 
poses to  buy  up  the  actions. 

For  the  textile  industry  in  particular,  it  is  a 
question  of  a  veritable  trust  against  which  is  ar- 
rayed "a  syndicate  of  Alsatian  manufacturers 
who  have  felt  the  need  of  defending  themselves." 

The  entire  scope  of  recent  German  policies  with 
regard  to  Alsace-Lorraine  shows  that  this  land 
which  von  Hertling  said  was  "allied  to  German- 
ism by  more  and  more  intimate  bonds"  has  been, 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  to  treat  it  like  a  foreign  land, 
kept  by  force  under  imperial  domination  and 
submitted,  like  the  occupied  portions  of  France 
and  Belgium,  to  a  veritable  reign  of  terror. 


APPENDIX  VI 

GERMANS  UNDEESTAND  FUTURE  PEACE 

If  an  account  is  desired  of  the  manner  in  which 
the  Germans  understand  a  future  peace,  this  let- 
ter suflSces.  It  was  addressed  to  the  Berlmer 
Lokalanzeiger  by  Herr  Walter  Rathenau.  He  was 
in  charge  of  the  direction  of  all  industrial  estab- 
Hshments  in  Germany : 

We  commenced  war  a  year  too  soon.  When  we 
shall  have  obtained  a  German  peace,  reorganiza- 
tion on  a  broader  and  more  solid  basis  than  ever 
before  must  commence  immediately.  The  estab- 
lishments which  produce  raw  materials  must  not 
only  continue  their  work,  but  they  must  also  re- 
double their  energies  and  thus  form  the  founda- 
tion of  Germany's  economical  preparation  for  the 
next  war. 

On  the  lessons  taught  by  actual  war  we  must 
229 


APPENDICES 

figure  out  carefully  what  our  country  lacks  in 
raw  materials  and  accumulate  great  stores  of 
these  which  shall  never  be  utilized  until  Der  Tag 
of  the  future.  We  must  organize  the  industrial 
mobilization  as  perfectly  as  the  military  mobili- 
zation. Every  man  of  technical  training  or  par- 
tial technical  training,  whether  or  not  he  is  en- 
rolled in  the  list  of  men  who  can  be  mobilized, 
must  have  received  authority  by  official  order  to 
take  over  the  direction  of  industrial  establish- 
ments on  the  second  day  which  shall  follow  the 
next  declaration  of  war. 

Every  establishment  which  manufactures  for 
commercial  purposes  ought  to  be  mobilized  and  to 
know  officially  that  the  third  day  after  the  declara- 
tion of  war  it  must  make  use  of  all  its  facilities  in 
satisfying  the  needs  of  the  Army. 

The  quantity  of  merchandise  which  each  one  of 
these  establishments  can  furnish  to  the  Army  in 
a  given  time  and  the  nature  thereof  ought  to  be 
determined  in  advance.  Every  establishment  also 
ought  to  furnish  an  exact  and  complete  list  of 
the  workmen  with  whose  services  it  can  dispense, 
and  those  men  alone  can  be  mobilized  for  military 
services. 

Finally  commercial  arrangements  will  be  made 

necessary  with  nations  outside  Europe  through 

which   we   will   give   them   sufficient    advantages, 

specified  in  detail,  so  that  it  would  be  directly 

£30 


APPENDICES 

advantageous  to  their  commercial  interests  to 
carry  on  commerce  with  none  of  the  belligerents 
and  not  to  sell  them  munitions. 

We  can  accept  such  obligations  for  ourselves 
without  any  fear  and  finally,  when  the  next  war 
shall  come,  it  cannot  come  a  year  too  soon. 


(2) 


^TM 


"nrr 


M:         UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 
BERKELEY 

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LOAN  DElfT 


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